It’s currently Day Four of rehearsals with the NZSO National Youth Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre here in Wellington. I’m here for the week attending rehearsals for my piece Speculations on a Rainbow, the culmination of my time as NYO Composer-in-Residence.
Working with conductor Tianyi Lu and the musicians of the NYO has been an incredible experience so far. It’s been wonderful hearing my piece brought to life after so many months of it existing on paper/computer/in my head.
Tomorrow is the first concert out of two, and it’s being livestreamed on the NZSO website starting at 6:30pm NZST, Friday 5 July.
The programme is:
Jessie Leov Speculations on a Rainbow
Khachaturian Piano Concerto
(Interval 20 mins)
Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 100
You can read the NZSO’s programme notes, by Feby Idrus, here.
And here’s the original programme note for my piece, and an image of the artwork that inspired it:
Celebrating the work of internationally acclaimed Aotearoa New Zealand artist Judy Millar, Speculations on a Rainbow is a response to Millar’s The Rainbow Loop.
Millar’s large-scale gestural work, a long looping painting on wood and canvas, forms a twisted coil that seeks to ‘interrupt and invade’ the space it occupies. Drawing on the duality of Millar’s sweeping strokes of vibrant colour, offset by stark monochromatic landscapes, Speculations on a Rainbow weaves its way through a shifting canvas of stability and turbulence, stillness and motion, offering a brief glimpse into the ‘temporary twisted world’ of The Rainbow Loop.
This work was commissioned by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for the 2024 NZSO National Youth Orchestra.
Jessie–we’re just home after hearing Speculations on a Rainbow this evening at The Regent in Palmerston North, and WOW, I am still smiling! It sparkled, popped and lit up the auditorium. It lit ME up! Best wishes for a fantastic trip to the States. Where can I hear this piece again?
Thank you so much Kim!! That’s so wonderful to hear, I’m glad you enjoyed it! The acoustics at the Regent were perfect – made it really come alive so I was super stoked.
At the moment the video from the livestream in Wellington from Friday night is still up so you can hear it there, it’s about 10 minutes in. https://www.nzso.co.nz/plus/videos/nyo-victory-livestream
I’m not sure if they’ll remove that video sometime soon but I think they’ll ultimately upload a video of my piece to Youtube.
Thanks again for your lovely message!