First pay the piper then call the tunes

By WILLIAM DART

The Auckland Chamber Orchestra's fourth season is being launched with a programme director Peter Scholes describes "as a celebration of melody in its many guises".

As if popular orchestral works by Mascagni and Vaughan Williams aren't tempting enough, there's always pianist Katherine Austin in Mozart's heavenly A major Concerto.

Scholes set up the orchestra because "after working with lots of orchestras, always on a project by project basis, I yearned for a stable commitment to a single vibrant group with the freedom to programme and conduct repertoire I love".

The past three years have seen the ACO providing background music for Stroheim's The Wedding March at the International Film Festival, playing the original Paul Whiteman version of Rhapsody in Blue and presenting Mozart's opera La Clemenza di Tito. And our own composers haven't been forgotten - last year, there was a local work in four out of six concerts.

Scholes spells out his philosophy: "New Zealand music must continue to grow and evolve, and that can only happen if we play the music and strike up relationships with composers to keep the art alive.

"This year Creative New Zealand has funded a new work from Lissa Meridan [and] this is very, very exciting to be the group that brings a piece to life for the first time."

We have to wait until November to hear Meridan's tuning the head of a pin when it will doubtlessly be the spice in an all-Mozart programme.

Other concerts this year include a young people's evening in July, a selection of quintets cast around the pianist David Guerin in September and, the following month, Scholes brings out an array of clarinets and recorders for a quirky take on Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

In December the group follows last year's Tito with Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. Once more, Raymond Hawthorne is directing with a cast headed by Zan McKendree-Wright. I'm assured that "in terms of sheer magnificence this will take the top spot".

Scholes, who has sustained a career as a professional musician since the 1980s, working as composer, clarinettist and conductor, is clear-eyed when it comes to funding.

"Our season is ambitious but when you have 30 people on stage all being paid, plus the venue and marketing costs, the box office cannot pay for it.

"We can't start the year until we have funding in place to make it financially viable. This means it's invariably difficult to get the season out on the marketplace early enough.

"For 2003 the same cycle continues. We spend six months making music and then six months (in a very leaky boat) trying to find the funds for the next concerts."

Sponsorship is "fantastic when the synergy works" and there are, thank goodness, the equivalent of Broadway angels.

He singles out "Frank and Linda Olsson who laid down a firm foundation in the first years. Alongside Creative New Zealand and Auckland City's Arts Alive, we've had long-standing relationships with James Wallace and KBB Music who have believed in the ACO right from the outset. And we're delighted to have confirmed our first concert host for the year - National Bank will sponsor October's Four Seasons."

The ACO is "still establishing its identity, building its audience and evolving a style of programming" but the future is rich in possibilities, including collaborations with contemporary artists and radical multi-media production concepts.

Scholes ends with a provocative challenge: "The orchestra is an international instrument. Composers from many cultures have taken it on and written music with a new sound. Maori and Pacific music is raging in the pop music world but when are Maori composers going to take on the orchestra?"

* The Auckland Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Scholes, with Katherine Austin (piano). Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber, Sunday, June 30 at 6pm