Psathas to be Premiered at SOUNZTender Concert

May 27th, 2010

Songs for Simon a new work for solo piano and digital audio by John Psathas is to be premiered as part of ‘SOUNZTender: the concert’, the culmination of a fundraising auction for SOUNZ (Centre for New Zealand Music), which is to take place at the Ilott Theatre, Wellington, New Zealand on 30 May 2010.

SOUNZtender: the Concert is the culmination of a 2009 project in which five award-winning composers from New Zealand offered to write a new work for the highest bidder in a highly successful fundraising auction. Other composers to have new works premiered in this concert alongside John Psathas are Eve de Castro-Robinson, Chris Gendall, Ross Harris and Gillian Whitehead, all who received the SOUNZ Contemporary Award from the Australasian Performing Right Association.

As part of the auction the successful bidders worked closely with the composer they chose to discuss the content of the music, name the work and suggest the instrument or voice for which the works would be composed. Psathas’ work Songs for Simon was commissioned by Jack Richards for Simon Tadeschi for the SOUNZtender Project and will be performed by pianist Donald Nicolson.

For more information about the concert, visit the SOUNZ website.