As big and complex as a marriage

Violinist Justine Cormack, cellist Ashley Brown, pianist Sarah Watkins.

Ashley Brown flies high on enthusiasm for new projects with old friends

NZTrio launches its 2015 Loft series tomorrow, playing Chausson, Rachmaninov and Chris Cree Brown to reaffirm how essential this group has become to the musical health of our city and nation.

Its own ensemble concerts aside, all three musicians - violinist Justine Cormack, cellist Ashley Brown and pianist Sarah Watkins - are unstinting in their involvement in a wide range of music-making.

Earlier this year, Cormack and Brown were key players in Chamber Music New Zealand's touring Turnovsky Jubilee Ensemble, while Watkins is one of our most sought-after accompanists.

Ashley Brown, fresh from rehearsals, laughs when I ask him why the group is still thriving after 14 years together.

"We get on as mates, which is such a good start," is his immediate response. "And we work on our relationship which, in its way, is every bit as big and complex as a marriage."

Brown talks of the need for ingenuity in finding ways to keep musical spirits fresh and how the group is enjoying revisiting Trio by Ernest Chausson, first played by them in 2004.

"We went back to a piece we knew like the back of our hands as if we hadn't seen it before," he says. "We were thrilled to be able to find fresh concerns and issues, with new ways of resolving them."

He is particularly enthusiastic about tomorrow's premiere of Cree Brown's Gallipoli Fragments for the intriguing line-up of piano trio, fixed media and images.

"There's plenty of recorded music and sound effects here, as well as a video screen, mainly showing stills," he says. "All of which really helps to put everything into clear historical context as well as mixing up the musical styles."

The cellist singles out one extraordinary moment in which the three play the Russian national anthem, a Muslim call to prayer and an Anglican hymn, which "suddenly come together in sync ... it's a real heart-twister".

He really likes it when things come together in unexpected ways. "Sometimes we pick up ideas from the soundtrack that might have seemed distant and remote through the speakers and move them close to the audience."

This is a group very much concerned with the here and the now. Many know these musicians through NZTrio's hip, edgy fashion shoots, which in turn reflect the music they tackle. It's no accident that the trio's latest Rattle album Lightbox could be seen as surveying some of the hottest local composing talent working today.

"We just love New Zealand music," Brown says. "From the beginning we've always thought it stacks up so well on the international stage. And so it's never been so much a question of whether we're going to play this music, but rather, which composer will be next on the list."

He likes the way that the new piece on a programme can polarise an audience and provoke all-important discussion.

"I always get a kick out of the way that this will invariably be what everybody talks about after the concert. It's not so much whether they like it or not, but it's so exciting that it has brought about such animated discussion."

The group is excited, too, about a recent project, workshopping scores by 18 young composers from campuses throughout the country. This will culminate in concerts in early October and a subsequent CD. Also causing anticipation is a new partnership with tenor Simon O'Neill which hopefully will see the four performing New Zealand music at London's Wigmore Hall.

Meanwhile, singing with the leonine O'Neill has been, quite literally, an ear-opener. "Simon has this incredible instrument," Brown says. "It's huge and when he lets rip, there's this incredible wall of sound. It's not about just being loud, though, it's all about richness of tone. It totally inspires us to become the wave that he can surf on."