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CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

(AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND)

8 March –- 15 March 2015
Leigh Sawmill Cafe, Te Uru Waitakere Gallery, Pah Homestead

From Leigh Sawmill Cafe to Titirangi'’s Te Uru Waitakere Gallery and the Pah Homestead in Hillsborough, Close Encounters will wow those seeking the unexpected at Auckland Arts Festival 2015.

Each Close Encounters offers a performance in a unique setting, up close and personal - an intimate view of the arts set in an enriching, enchanting and inspiring location.

Created by a variety of senior artists and performers, the suite of three events crosses boundaries of performing and visual arts, offering audiences a matchless one-off experience.

On Sunday 8 March, the romantic, renaissance sounds of early music ensemble Age of Discovery will ring out at Leigh Sawmill Cafe. Under the direction of artistic director James Tibbles, Monteverdi’'s exquisite Songs of Love and War will wend and wind through the venue and tranquil ornamental gardens.

A wonderful opportunity to savor both the music and a glass of wine, concert goers can also linger to chat with the artists after the performance.

The rich, earthy melodies of composer Jonathan Besser and singer Mere Boynton will resonate throughout Auckland’'s newest art venue when Aroha/Ahava Songs debuts at Te Uru Waitakere Gallery, in Titirangi, on Saturday 14 March.

Aroha/Ahava Songs is a beautiful musical conversation of art songs for voice and chamber group, and which weaves a journey through Jewish and Maori beliefs and expressions of aroha and ahava (love).

Taking inspiration from the Old Testament’'s The Book of the Songs of Solomon, the love of land, whenua and family, composer Jonathan Besser and singer Mere Boynton create an evocative taniko/tapestry made up of dark texts and earthy rich melodies.

Set against a backdrop of Titirangi’'s majestic kauri bush, Aroha/Ahava Songs will ring out, clear and true, in English, Maori and Hebrew.

Born in New York City and based in New Zealand since the 1970s, Jonathan Besser is a founding member of early electronic group Free Radicals. He has composed for opera, ballet, theatre and ensemble. His award-winning screen compositions include War Stories and A Cat Among the Pigeons.

Mere Boynton is of Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Ngati Oneone and Tuhoe descent. Formally trained in voice, her singing style draws on both her classical training and taha Maori. She has performed in Gareth Farr’'s Te Papa, toured in the dance opera Jerusalem by Michael Parmenter, and featured in Te Tangata Whairawa o Weneti (The Maori Merchant of Venice). She has performed internationally with acclaimed director Lemi Ponifasio and visual theatre company MAU, and will appear in Auckland Arts Festival 2015’s co-production of MAU’'s newest work, I AM.

Jonathan and Mere will be joined by fellow performers Charmian Keay, Iselta Allison, Maree Thom, John Bell and Chris O’Connor as they mingle with audiences after the event. In addition, concert-goers are being offered a guided tour of the three Festival exhibitions at Te Uru.

An experience awaits Festival-goers entering the world of PAH, at the Pah Homestead and Monte Cecilia Park, from Tuesday 10 March –- Sunday 15 March.  

PAH is collaboration between three of New Zealand’'s leading female artists:  choreographer Carol Brown, composer Dame Gillian Whitehead and visual artist Star Gossage.

A multimedia performance weaving dance, art and live music, audiences are led by performers through the house and park grounds whilst exploring the hidden histories and forgotten secrets of one of Auckland’s largest 19th-century homes.

Relating stories of inhabitants past, and moving through installations of paintings and photography, ghosts emerge from the shadows to dance into the present, revealing PAH to be a place of many layers.

Carol Brown is an award-winning contemporary choreographer, and artistic director of Carol Brown Dance.

Her work has been performed throughout the world including Russia, Australia, Italy the UK, France and Bulgaria.

Dame Gillian Whitehead is an award-winning New Zealand composer who has written a wide range of music including works for solo, chamber, choral, orchestral and opera. She is a past president of the Composers Association of New Zealand, former composer in residence at the Auckland Philharmonia, and an inaugural recipient of Arts Foundation Laureate Awards.

Star Gossage is a multi media artist of Ngati Wai, Ngati Ruanui, French, Portugese and English descent. A graduate of the Otago Polytechnic School of Fine Arts, Gossage is considered one of the most important young Maori artists of the past two decades. Working from her studio on ancestral land at Pakiri, she draws inspiration for her work from nature, often making her own materials, mixing earth, lime, clay and tar with ready-made mediums to produce the colours and textures she desires. In 2006, Te Papa acquired Gossage’s work Moana for the national art collection.

As part of PAH, audiences will be able to experience an exhibition of artworks by Gossage and photographer Simon Mortimer, curated by the Pa Collective and the Wallace Arts Trust.                                                      

www.aaf.co.nz

SEASON DETAILS

Close Encounters with support from Creative New Zealand.

PAH with support from The Wallace Foundation, the University of Auckland and Otago University.