Poulima Salima Photo: Supplied
Samoan composer Poulima Salima is one of six New Zealanders asked by expat pianist Professor Henry Wong Doe to write a piece inspired by their experience of the Covid pandemic.
Bryan Crump spoke with Poulima about this work for solo piano - Lo'u Molimau (My Testimony) - and other projects he's recently been involved with including the Samoan opera Alofagia: Le Opera, featuring international vocal trio Sol3 Mio.
Poulima says his very first compositions were piano pieces, very simple arrangements, inspired by the music he was learning through the Royal Schools of Music, and Trinity College of Music exams.
"I did a lot of classical music growing up... and I was fascinated with the artistry of classical music."
Playing for the community church choir also provided invaluable experience for Poulima: "the best training ground I could possibly have as a young composer".
"My parents identified the passion [for composition] that I had. My father would sit next to me at the piano and he would sing these chants, he would sing these old-school hymns and he'd get me to try and transcribe [them]... and remember, I'm only two or three years into learning piano!"
"I guess that was the birth of me writing music, that was the moment when I said to myself 'I want to do this forever'."
