12 Apr 2017

Chris GENDALL: Incident Tableaux Part One

From NZ Composer Sessions, 12:00 am on 12 April 2017

In 1943, 48 Japanese Prisoners of War were killed in Featherston, New Zealand, after an incident arising from cross-cultural confusion and miscommunication.

All events surrounding the incident were kept secret until well after the war had finished: the Prisoner-of-War camp’s existence was hidden from the New Zealand public, and the official military report on the incident was riddled with ambiguities.

Incident Tableaux Part One presents instrumental versions of operatic material from the first three numbers of my chamber opera, casting its dramaturgy and characterisations in new, distinctive colours.

Biography

Chris Gendall

Chris Gendall Photo: Supplied

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 was the Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago for 2016/17.

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 12 April 2017, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert for 2017 NZ Composer Sessions.

Producer: David McCaw

Engineer: Graham Kennedy

Get the RNZ app

for easy access to all your favourite programmes