Five Lines is a collection of writings about music in Aotearoa New Zealand by Elizabeth Kerr. It features short articles, artist profiles and reviews of concerts, operas and albums. You can subscribe - it’s free - at the bottom of any story.
Composer Eve de Castro-Robinson: premieres, a revelation and a touch of defiance
Composer Eve de Castro-Robinson has had two major premieres in the past two months. She’s also had a revelation about how and why her composing has changed over her career.
Gemma New: conducting with artistry
Gemma New talked to Five Lines about an epiphany, collaborating with a super-star violinist, meeting Saariaho, conducting The Planets and taking up boxing.
Pianist Jian Liu: a way of living through music
Pianist Jian Liu is having a busy 2024, but his career from China to New Zealand via America has prepared him for this life in music.
Cellist Matthias Balzat: representing the music with an open heart
Cellist Matthias Balzat is returning to New Zealand for a concert tour, including three concerto appearances with Opus Orchestra. He talked to Five Lines about his musical upbringing.
Composer Jonathan Dove: taking opera outside the opera house
UK composer Jonathan Dove is in New Zealand for NZ Opera’s production of his Mansfield Park. In this profile he talks about why he’s taken opera out of the opera house.
Sergey Malov: tradition and rebellion
When Sergey Malov performs at the 2024 Adam Chamber Music Festival, he’ll play violin, viola, and the lesser-known violoncello da spalla. And he’s bring his loop pedals.
Madeleine Pierard: “sumptuous singing” at home and away
After singing Strauss’s Four Last Songs for English National Ballet, soprano Madeleine Pierard is back in Aotearoa for two operatic roles and an NZSO tour. She talks about vocal fitness and the young stars of TANZOS..
Violinist Benjamin Baker and the birth of a chamber music festival
New Zealand-born violinist Benjamin Baker is bringing the success of his international career to his leadership of a new chamber music festival in an awe-inspiring landscape.
Composer Briar Prastiti: artist on the edge
Composer Briar Prastiti, currently living in the Lilburn Residence, has called her new work for Orchestra Wellington, Akri, a Greek word meaning “edge”. She talked to Five Lines about the dissonance between her Greek and New Zealand identities.
NZ Opera’s new head, Brad Cohen: sharing the power of music
Brad Cohen, incoming General Director of New Zealand Opera, talked to Five Lines about his training and career as a conductor and his drive to share the power of music through the intimacy of the singing voice.
Victoria Kelly’s Requiem: stretching time
As composer Victoria Kelly prepares for the world premiere of her major work, Requiem, she talks about the personal losses, and the poetry, that were her inspiration.
Composer Reuben Jelleyman: radical transformations
New Zealand composer Reuben Jelleyman recently won the SOUNZ Contemporary Award for his work Catalogue, composed in Paris. What route has he taken to this prestigious Award, and what happens next?
Christian Li: a prodigious talent
Violinist Christian Li made his debut with the Auckland Philharmonia recently and RNZ Concert is broadcasting the concert this week. Aged just 14, his playing is both dazzling and thoughtful.
Gemma New: the NZSO’s new Principal Conductor
Gemma New’s appointment as Principal Conductor of the NZSO has been greeted with delight in her home country. For this rising international star of the podium, it is a dream come true.
Jenny McLeod at 80: “to me I’m always me…”
Composer Jenny McLeod died on 28 November 2022. In a birthday tribute in 2021 I wrote about the life and work of this brilliant and mercurial composer.
Salina Fisher: personal music for a worldwide audience
Composer Salina Fisher is composer-in-residence at the inaugural At the World’s Edge Festival in Central Otago. Five of her compositions feature in Festival programmes.
An award-winning conductor rolls up her sleeves
Kiwi conductor Holly Mathieson, Music Director of Symphony Nova Scotia, is in New Zealand for concerts with the NZSO and APO.
Sugar and spice for a ballet
Claire Cowan’s brilliant orchestral score for the Royal NZ Ballet’s Hansel and Gretel is now available on a stylish CD.
Singers surviving in a pandemic with London whānau
Singers Madeleine Pierard and Julien van Mellaerts have led New Zealand opera singers in London in a Royal Albert Hall recital to raise spirits and funds during pandemic disruptions.
On the podium in a pandemic
Conductor Gemma New came to New Zealand to conduct the NZSO in six concerts. In these uncertain times, plans change suddenly.