23 Sep 2018

Leonie HOLMES: Dance of the Wintersmith

From Music Alive, 8:15 pm on 23 September 2018

Performed by Andrew Beer and Sarah Watkins at the Karlheinz Company Suffrage 125 Celebration Concert.

This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions.

Andrew Beer and Sarah Watkins

Andrew Beer and Sarah Watkins Photo: supplied

Leonie Holmes is a Senior Lecturer in Composition and Theory at the University of Auckland School of Music.

Dance of the Wintersmith draws inspiration from the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett.

Holmes describes the story: “A young girl training to be a witch is taken into the middle of a forest to witness a dark Morris Dance of otherworldly men. Losing herself in the dance, she ends up joining in, disrupting the natural balance of the seasons and causing a cascade of icy problems, which turn ever more deadly for mortals as the besotted Wintersmith searches the world for her.”

She goes on to comment: “As in all Pratchett’s books, the tale is fantastical and very funny, whilst still containing some pertinent messages on the follies of humankind.”

The work was written especially for Andrew Beer and Sarah Watkins and was a finalist in the 2018 Sounz Contemporary Award.

Recorded by RNZ Concert in the University of Auckland Music Theatre, 23 September 2018
Producer: Tim Dodd; Engineer: Rangi Powick

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