Welcome to the website for New Zealand composer and musician
Elizabeth Jane Dobson (a.k.a Lizzie, or Ej)
I am a composer currently living in New Zealand.
Some current news:
2010 New Zealand Symphony Orchestra / TODD Young Composer readings at the Micheal Fowler Centre, Wellington, September. My work Planare for orchestra will be workshopped and recorded by the NZSO.
SOUNZ - view my new profile. Sounz is the Centre for New Zealand music and has information about music and composers from NZ.
Music for Blindsight - a film by NZ film maker Shoshana Sachi - view the trailer here!
Myself and soprano Diantha Hillenbrand just attended the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2010 in Canberra, June 2010. We performed Hindrance for a May Morning (based on 12th Night from Shakespeare).
Let the Art Sing, organised by New Zealand composer Susan Frykberg and held at The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. I performed improv with local musicians!
A Song of Colour and Existence for mezzo soprano and piano was performed at the 2010 Nelson Composers Workshop.
PERTH:
Earlier on in the year I travelled to Perth, Australia to visit percussionist Louise Devenish. I met Louise in Massachusetts while at Bang on a Can. (Louise was a percussion fellow accepted into Bang on a Can's 2009 Summer music festival and was one of the performers playing my work Manatu.) After meeting her in the States she was interested to see what I would write for solo percussion. I wrote for her Parihaka - based on New Zealand poet Apirana Taylor's poem titled Parihaka.
I have made a page where you can view the press release here, later on this will be updated with pictures and a write up about my trip. To visit the website about the performance / third premiere visit the page here.
Louise recently premiered Parihaka on the 11th and the 18th of March. I attended the third performance on the 29th of March in Perth at the Ellington Jazz Club. While in Perth I spoke at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and at a few other places.
LAST YEAR:
In 2009 I was selected to attend Bang on a Can's summer music festival. B.O.A.C is a top composer and performer residency programme held in Massachusetts over the U.S summer for three weeks. I was 1 of 9 composers accepted and my work .Manatu. was performed by fellows at the festival. The whole festival was an outstanding experience which included "rubbing shoulders" with top composers and musicians such as Steve Reich, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Todd Reynolds, Ken Thomson, Derek Johnson just to name a few. More info and write up about this will be coming on the soon to be updated Bang on a Can page, including information (score and recording excerpt) about her piece premiered there.
In other news:
My sister just got married! I scored a brother in law :-)
Othe updates:
Lizzie is again in the 2010 NZSO (New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) TODD Orchestral readings. Her brand new work titled Planare for orchestra (Italian for glide) will be workshopped and recorded in September 2010. Lizzie's work A Study in Scarlet, for orchestra was workshopped and recorded by the NZSO TODD Young composer awards held early August 2009. This is the second time one of her pieces has been accepted into the readings. For more information about the NZSO TODD readings please click here.
Lizzie also attended the Nelson Composers Workshop - for piano, clarinet and trombone called Echo & Narcissus was workshopped and performed there at the start of July by Andrew Uren (clarinet), Ben Hoadley (bassoon) and Claire Harris (piano) - score and recording excerpts will be coming on the music page soon!
For up to date news please see Lizzie's new blog.
To contact Lizzie in the interim please email ej @ ej dobson.com
Twitter: (up to the minute updates)
