Research

The School's most ambitious project currently is the establishment of a research centre devoted to 18th and 19th century music. INTRADA is a timely response to the need for further research of 'the big three' (Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven), and to bring to life the vast wealth of music written by the contemporaries of these great classical composers. The mix of professional expertise in research, performance, publishing and recording amongst School staff gives us the opportunity to create a research centre unlike any other in the world. Staff working in the field include:

• Dr Allan Badley, who is highly regarded internationally for his work on major contemporaries of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, and has published several hundred important editions, and had his work featured on nearly 50 CDs.
• Associate Professor Uwe Grodd, who is world-renowned as an outstanding flautist and conductor as a result of an exceptional series of recordings of rare 18th and early 19th century works. His current research and publication plan stretches into 2016, with confirmed work for five international CD releases on Naxos Records. The recordings of his new editions of JN Hummel‘s arrangements for flute, violin, cello and piano of W A Mozart’s last six symphonies are eagerly awaited. Volume 1, featuring Mozart’s ‘Prague’ and G minor Symphonies,was recorded in January 2012 in Austria with Prof Friedemann Eichhorn, violin, Prof Roland Krüger, piano - both from Germany - and Senior Lecturer Martin Rummel on cello.
• Associate Professor Dean Sutcliffe , who is amongst the most influential figures in 18th century scholarship today. Publications have covered composers such as Domenico Scarlatti, Gyrowetz, Boccherini, Mozart, Scarlatti’s Spanish contemporary Sebastián de Albero and above all Haydn. He has recently completed a chapter on the keyboard music of the Spaniard Manuel Blasco de Nebra (1750-1784) for an edited collection of essays. His current research focuses on trying to define the notion of sociability in relation to the instrumental music of the later eighteenth century.
• Dr Nancy November, who specialises in the music of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (aesthetics, analysis, reception); and performance history, theory and practice. "Beethoven's Theatrical Quartets" is the subject of her forthcoming book on the culture, theory and practices of Beethoven's middle-period string quartets. Her work on "loops of literacy" explores the use of students' digital literacy and avid use of social media in improving their musical and historical literacy. Recent publications include a set of seven sextets (flute, oboe, violin, two violas and cello) by Beethoven's unduly neglected Viennese contemporary Paul Wranitzky, a book chapter entitled "Marketing Ploys, Monuments, and Music Paratexts: Reading the Title Pages of Early Mozart Editions", and a study of music and melancholy ca. 1800.
  Read more about Dr November's research 

John Coulter is a composer/researcher with special interests in octophonic electroacoustic music (EAM), EAM with moving images, and interactive installation. John's work was featured at the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2011 (ACMC), along with that of several other prominent local and international composers and music researchers.
Read more about ACMC

Rae de Lisle specialises in musicians’ health, with a particular interest in the treatment and prevention of focal dystonia. Her work has received international recognition and she has been approached to work with pianists in London, Turkey and Australia.   She is also researching international trends in technical training in preparation for a book on the biomechanics of piano technique and injury prevention.

Dr 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 object of the project 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.
Read more about Dr Te Oti Rakena's research

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

Davinia Caddy is working on a variety of topics related to music in Paris during the period known as the belle époque (roughly 1890–1914). These topics include: music and dance; music and the early sciences of the mind; opera and singing; musical time and musical “work”.

• Dr Leonie Holmes' research focuses on composition, with a secondary area in pedagogy, in particular the teaching of composition, musicianship and creative music. Recent compositions include "Frond", for orchestra, performed by the NZSO at the Asia Pacific Festival 2007 and appearing on the CD Passing, Atoll/Move Records 2010; "Ancient Rhythms", selected for inclusion in the NZSO/SOUNZ readings May 2010; "Is there anybody in there?", for Ben Hoadley’s New Zealand Music for Woodwind concerts in 2010, "Fragment for String Quartet" for the Jade Quartet 2007; "The Fourth Station", for the Stations of the Cross Exhibition, Gus Fisher Gallery, Kenneth Meyers Centre, Easter 2008; and "The Journey", for massed choir and symphony orchestra commissioned for the formal opening of the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre Genesis Theatre, Manukau City.
• Associate Professor John Elmsly has research interests in all aspects of contemporary composition, with substantial experience in electroacoustic music. His compositions include works for symphony orchestra (many recorded and/or performed by the Auckland Philharmonia and the New Zealand Symphony orchestra), vocal and choral music, chamber and solo music commissioned by many leading performers, and electroacoustic music. His electroacoustic works have been performed all over the world.

Dr David Lines 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.