Research

The Intrada research centre intends to serve as a catalyst for new research and research-informed performance.

Intrada

With some of the world’s most influential figures in 18th and 19th century music scholarship, the Intrada research centre was established in 2013.

With a strong emphasis on research into the works of major contemporaries of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, Intrada promises to bring to life a wealth of historically important yet largely unknown music.

The project has an outstanding mix of professional expertise in research, performance, publishing and recording resident at the School of Music. Add to this a valuable collection of early musical instruments, and Intrada creates a unique opportunity to explore the music of this critical period.

Staff working in the field include:

  • Associate Professor Allan Badley: Highly regarded for his work on major contemporaries of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, he has published several hundred editions and his work has featured on over 50 CDs.
  • Associate Professor Dean Sutcliffe: A trailblazer in 18th century music research, his publications have covered Haydn, Mozart, Scarlatti, Gyrowetz, Boccherini and Sebastián de Albero. He is co-editor of the Eighteenth-Century Music journal published by Cambridge University Press.
  • Dr Nancy November: A specialist in the performance history, theory and practice of late 18th and early 19th century music, as well as its aesthetics, analysis and reception.

Early milestones for Intrada:

  • World premiere recordings of J N Hummel‘s arrangements for flute, violin, cello and piano of Mozart’s last six symphonies.
  • Publication of critical editions of six keyboard concertos by Leopold Hofmann (1738-93) for the prestigious series Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich.   

Electroacoustic Music (EAM)

John Coulter

John is a composer/researcher with special interests in octophonic electroacoustic music (EAM), EAM with moving images, and interactive installation.

Since late 2010, John has been working on designing and constructing a 3D spatialiser for multichannel electroacoustic music.

Musicians' health

Rae de Lisle

Rae has enjoyed a long and successful career as a pianist, accompanist, educator and chamber musician, with appearances across North America, the UK and New Zealand.

Her later career was affected by a muscular skeletal injury. This inspired a passion for injury prevention in musicians, and led to doctoral research into focal dystonia – a neurological condition. Dystonia is localised to a specific part of the body and often affects people – such as musicians, surgeons, artists and sports professionals – who rely on fine motor skills.

Rae created a programme of rehabilitation. She worked with keyboard, woodwind and string musicians to restore movement or halt the onset of symptoms. Core to recovery is retraining the part of the body that is affected, learning to move in a new way, and possibly creating new neurological pathways as a result.

Socio-linguistics and voice science

Dr Te Oti Rakena

Te Oti Rakena is currently undertaking a project called "The Loss of the Pacific Quality: the Colonised Māori Voice", which brings together information from the area of socio-linguistics and from the voice science area, in particular the singing pedagogy literature.

The project is interested in the voice practices and qualities of the wider South Pacific community and investigating the loss of the aesthetic value of some of these vocal qualities.

The aim is to inform and reconnect Māori with the purpose of performance practice at a vocal function level,and discuss why they have been replaced by more western-derived aesthetic choices.

The aim is to inform and reconnect Māori with the purpose of performance practice at a vocal function level,and discuss why they have been replaced by more western-derived aesthetic choices.

Improvisational practice

Ron Samsom

Ron is exploring improvisational practice in the performance of collaborative musical works.

Composition

Dr Leonie Holmes

Leonie has two main research interests: composition and music education. She has written works for orchestra, chamber, choral, vocal and solo instrument, and receives frequent commissions from both professional and community groups.  

A particular interest is orchestral music, examples being Aquae Sulis, Frond, Ancient Rhythms, For Young Nick and Solstice, all of which have been recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Many compositions for smaller groups are the result of requests and commissions from colleagues, students and friends, including:

  • Is there anybody in there? for bassoonist Ben Hoadley and the New Zealand Music for Woodwind concert series
  • Through coiled stillness... for the University of Auckland Chamber Choir tour to England in 2011
  • A Tedious Brief Scene: Bottom's Dance for the award-winning University of Auckland Emerging Artist chamber group The Estrella Quartet
  • The Fourth Station for solo cello for an exhibition entitled “Stations of the Cross” at the Gus Fisher Gallery
  • Fragment for String Quartet for the Jade Quartet.

Stemming from her work as Composer-in-Schools in the 1990s, Leonie is interested in developing a musical language that will engage and challenge non-professional players.  She has written many works for school and community groups and is regularly invited to speak or direct workshops with secondary school students and teachers. Commissions from community groups include In the Lair of the Cave Weta, Tango Mangle, The Journey, Silver Whispers Suite and the choral works The Estuary and The Wanderer.

Associate Professor Eve de Castro-Robinson  

Eve is one of New Zealand’s foremost composers, and has been commissioned and performed around the world. Notable performers of her work include the:

  • BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
  • Nash Ensemble of London
  • New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
  • Dutch HEX
  • Chamber Music New Zealand
  • New Zealand String Quartet
  • NZ Trio
  • New Zealand Chamber Orchestra

There are also many soloists performing her work including Alexander Ivashkin, Jane Manning, Stephen De Pledge and Henry Wong Doe.

Eve’s output ranges from large orchestral to vocal, chamber and electroacoustic works.  Works include The Glittering Hosts of Heaven, commissioned and premiered by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in 2013, and LEN LYE the opera, a 90-minute five-act multimedia chamber opera.

As well as supervising a range of doctoral research projects, Eve’s role encompasses the practice and study of composition, including coordination of workshops, and oversight of the annual composition prize concerts.

Connecting Pedagogies: Viral video and music learning

Dr David Lines

David is investigating the professional development of early childhood arts teachers through collaborations with community artists. Another project looks at the use of online viral video for music learning through a collaboration with a film musicologist from the UK. David is also exploring new concepts that extend jazz music through collaborative performance projects with his regular group.