AUCKLAND YOUTH ORCHESTRA
Composer-in-Residence

The Auckland Youth Orchestra is seeking expressions of interest for the position of its Composer in Residence for the 2010 season. Candidates must be under 26 years of age at the time of application.

The candidate will be someone who presents the best ideas for a composition appropriate for a youth orchestra, will benefit the most from holding the residency and from the activities and opportunities associated with it.

The composer in residence will have the following opportunities:
•  Composing a work of no less than 3 minutes and no more than 5 minutes duration for the core instrumentation and resources of the orchestra. This work to be premiered during the orchestra's 2010 season.
•  Composing one minor commission, such as a short orchestral work suitable for an education concert, a fanfare or overture, a chamber work, an occasional piece for a special event or other works to be agreed.

Each expression of interest should include the following:
•  a CV, including references
•  a score of at least one relevant and representative work, preferably accompanied by a sound file or recording
•  a covering letter specifically addressing the following:
*  how the candidate would benefit from the residency
* how the candidate would be able to fulfill the role of the composer in residence as described above
* specific ideas the candidate has in mind as major and minor commissions

Please note that scores and recordings will not be returned.
Please do not send originals.
Applications are due by Monday 14 December 2009.

Please send to:
Antun Poljanich, Music Director, Auckland Youth Orchestra
c/o St Peters College, Mountain Road, Newmarket, Auckland
a.poljanich@st-peters.school.nz

View AYO Inc Rules (PDF)

View AYO Trust, Trust Deed (PDF)

Youth orchestra hits top notes

Review - By ALLAN PURDY - Taranaki Daily News

A fullsymphony orchestra again (at last) in New Plymouth, with a most acceptable programme and pocket-friendly prices, too.

But where were all the music-lovers? Missing a thrilling concert by the Auckland Youth Symphony Orchestra in the Theatre Royal last night. Established in 1948 (the first in Australasia ) the AYO provides training for orchestral musicians of the future.

A Beethoven Symphony, a Rachmaninov Piano Concerto and a very listenable opener by a 21-year-old New Zealander made up a programme to test the talents of the performers and satisfy the majority of listeners.
Noughts and Crosses by Alex Taylor (currently principal second violin and composer-in-residence with the AYO) is a refreshingly attractive piece on first hearing. Irregular time signatures, complex rhythms and spiky melodic lines were handled well, including some impressively neat pizzicato in the middle movement.

 

With the Steinway concert grand up front and 70 plus players filling the stage we were treated to a sound almost too big for the space. Soloist Joong-Han Jung began Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 in very authoritative style and displayed no lack of virtuosic technique throughout. The languidly arching melodies were carried superbly by the orchestra whose youthful enthusiasm gained full flight in the massive fortissimos of this masterpiece of Russian romanticism. I'm sure Beethoven would be dancing along to the rumbustious performance of his
Symphony No 8.

Conductor Antun Poljanich stirred his players into a very lively rendering of this familiar work. The heightened dynamics, soaring themes, and intricate rhythmic motifs were all precisely placed with telling effect. This orchestra has a wonderfully rich, warm string sound (even when mutes are on) and confident, colourful wind players to match. Please come again to New Plymouth. I'm sure the word will get around next time.

Gifted student reveals secret of her success

4:00AM Tuesday Mar 17, 2009 . By Jacqueline Smith, NZ Herald

Former Diocesan School student Emily Adlam is the only student to top three scholarship subjects since New Zealand introduced the exams four years ago - and the only one to gain six outstanding scholar awards for all the subjects she sat last year.

Emily topped the country in physics, statistics and Latin and gained scholarships in these subjects, as well as in calculus, English and chemistry.

Emily is no stranger to success. At 18, she is an accomplished musician, scientist, debater, poet and writer who says she is writing her fifth novel in her spare time.

Her achievements include a rare Royal Society of New Zealand Gold CREST award for a renewable-energy research project she completed last year and being the top-scoring New Zealander at last year's Chemistry Olympiad in Budapest.

Last year she got A pluses for two papers she studied through Auckland University.

But Emily said her scholarship results still took her by surprise.

"I did not come out of the exams thinking I had done really well and I didn't feel any different about how I did in the subjects I ended up coming first in," she said.

This year Emily started studying for two degrees - Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts in physics and philosophy.

"Physics and philosophy complement each other because they are different ways of approaching the same questions about how the world works," she said.

Her longer term plans include gaining a PhD then working in scientific research.

"I'm very interested in energy research and also in quantum theories of the mind. I would love to be part of the collaborations between physicists and neuroscientists that are happening around the world," she said.

Emily does not watch television and is a fast reader. But she says the real secret to fitting a lot of activities into her life is by believing each task is a break from another so it becomes a form of recreation.

Emily is one of 10 students nationwide this year to win the NCEA premier award, which is worth $30,000 to be paid over three years, and one of 47 students to win one or more outstanding scholar awards.

She will receive her premier awards and three top-of-subject scholarship awards at a ceremony in Wellington on May 14.

Clever times five = really clever

4:00AM Thursday Feb 19, 2009. By Jacqueline Smith, NZ Herald. Photo / Martin Sykes

One NCEA scholarship is good, two is better ... Ella Tunnicliffe-Glass has five.

And four of them are Outstanding Scholar Awards.

The 17-year-old learned of her success yesterday when she checked her results online.

Ella, who was in Year 13 at St Cuthbert's College last year and was runner-up dux, has high aspirations.

She recently returned from a trip to The Hague where she represented New Zealand at a United Nations conference for high school students, and is about to start studying biomedical science at the University of Auckland.

She hopes to get into medical school next year, and would like to work for the United Nations some day.

The money she receives from her five scholarships will be put into a savings account or towards her orchestra's planned trip to Germany this year, she said.

Last year, St Cuthbert's topped the school rankings for the number of NCEA scholarships won, and principal Lynda Reid was happy to find out that her students had earned even more scholarships this year.

All students at the Epsom private school sit NCEA and this year 108 scholarships were awarded to the girls who sat those exams.

Mrs Reid said the school had worked hard to increase its scholarships total from 68 in 2006 to 106 in 2007.

Last year's results proved the jump "was not just an aberration".

Mrs Reid said NCEA pushed students to understand a topic and develop critical thinking skills so they could achieve at an excellence or scholarship level.

Of the 8996 students who sat NCEA scholarship exams last year, 2038 were awarded scholarships and will receive a total of more than $3.2 million over the next three years.

The awards range from a one-off payment of $500 for a single subject exam pass to the Premier Award of $30,000 to be paid over three years   presented to the top 10 students.

Forty-seven students receive the Outstanding Scholar Award.

This is worth $5000 a year for three years, as long as they maintain at least a B-grade average in tertiary study in New Zealand.

Premier awards and details of school rankings according to NCEA results will be announced in May.

 

 

Since 2004, the
NZEST has granted nine $5000 scholarships to university students. Schools are asked to nominate two applicants. Last year, 90 schools nationally put forward 145 students for consideration.

A shortlist of 13 was interviewed earlier this month, with Ms Lu, Harry Aitken, Liam Fisk, Sam George and Celeste Oram the five Auckland-schooled recipients. For Ms Lu, news of the award couldn't have come at a better time.

She bought a new flute because her old one couldn't cope with the demands of her University of Auckland schedule and, she said, her Greenlane-based family were finding money particularly tight because of rising interest rates.

A member of the Auckland Youth Orchestra, Ms Lu hopes to become a professional flautist. She also loves to teach and is eyeing work as a composer for films.