Reflecting on a special few days participating in the first event of its kind in Aotearoa – APRA Composition Hubs, a week-long collaborative composing “camp” inspired by APRA’s super successful SongHubs events which take place across Australasia.
I was thrilled to be invited to take part in this pilot event along with five of my peers – Jessica Robinson, Liam Pram, Oliver Bramah, Mika Cornelius, and Estella Wallace. We were put into pairs and given three days in the studio to each compose a work in collaboration with our partner. I was really excited to work with Tāmaki-based composer and sound artist Jess Robinson. A little scared by the short timeframe but I do love a challenge ;)
Over the weekend we did some final polishing on our pieces and returned to Parachute Studios on Monday for a day of recording with Jade String Quartet and a guest pianist. The tangible outcome was six new collaborative works for string quartet and piano. However the most valuable part of the week in my opinion was the opportunity to connect with fellow composers, the challenge of working with someone new on a very tight timeframe, being able to experiment with different methods of collaboration, and having the beautiful studios at Parachute to work in which really encourage focus and creativity.
Being part of this initiative was another great reminder that music (for me at least) is centred around community – who you play music with, who you write music with, who you write music for, who experiences your music, and what conversations it inspires.
Grateful for the dedicated team behind this project – Jessie and Mike from APRA, Fergus and Simon from CANZ – and looking forward to seeing how it evolves in future years.
Sounds awesome indeed. Thank you for your work. All the best with development for composition platforms.
Yours,
Hannah M J Simpson
Cherry’s gemstones