13 Oct 2014

Chris GENDALL: The Charm Offensive

From NZ Composer Sessions, 12:00 am on 13 October 2014

 

The Charm Offensive takes as its text a testimony from J.S. Underwood, recanting evidence she gave that the African-American William Offett raped her (a white woman), for which he went to prison in 1888. (This text comes from Ida Wells-Barnett’s 1892 exposé on lynching in the New York Age.)

In addition to being loaded with post-emancipation guilt, Underwood’s choice of words highlight her sense of affection for Offett – and read a little like love poems.

Chris Gendall

Chris Gendall Photo: Supplied

Biography

Originally from Hamilton, New Zealand, Chris Gendall studied composition at Victoria University of Wellington before completing a doctoral degree at Cornell University with Roberto Sierra and Steven Stucky. He has participated in a number of festivals and conferences including the Wellesley Composers’ Conference, the Aspen Music Festival, the Britten-Pears Contemporary Composition programme, the Royaumont Voix nouvelles Composition Course, and the Aldeburgh Festival – bringing him in contact with such figures as Magnus Lindberg, Brian Ferneyhough, Mario Davidovsky, Oliver Knussen, and Anders Hillborg. He has held residencies at Orchestra Wellington and at the New Zealand School of Music, and he is the Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago for 2016 and 2017.

In 2016 Chris’ orchestral work Incident Tableaux was premiered in Hanoi, Vietnam during the Asia-Europe New Music Festival and Asian Composers League Festival. In the same year Chris’ Choruses was premiered by the Miyata-Yoshimura-Suzuki Trio.

Chris Gendall’s works have received performances in Europe, Asia, North and South America, from such performers as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Stroma, NZTrio, the New Juilliard Ensemble and the New Zealand String Quartet. Select works are published by the Waiteata Music Press, Peer Music Hamburg and Promethean Editions, and recorded on Atoll Records. His work Wax Lyrical was the winner of the 2008 SOUNZ Contemporary Award.

Recorded 13 October 2014, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert for 2014 NZ Composer Sessions.

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