Head of Music, Chris Adams. Photo credit: Gareth Watkins / Lilburn Trust / Wallace Arts Trust.
The work was originally commissioned by Old Collegian Sir James Wallace and the Wallace Arts Trust in 2011 and is for flute, bassoon, and piano.
"I’m extremely excited to have the work selected and look forward to hearing it in Vietnam,” says Adams. "It is also a fantastic opportunity to hear a wide range of works from a large number of contemporary composers from the Asia Pacific region.”
Adams, who was the Auckland Philharmonia’s Composer in Residence earlier in his career, is also currently working with the Auckland Philharmonia to write a 15-minute orchestral work based on a painting by Petrus van den Velden, Otira Gorge, held in the Auckland Art Gallery. Following two workshops later in the year, the work will be performed in a concert in May 2017.
"I have always found Petrus van den Velden’s Otira paintings particularly powerful, with their heavy paint and dark and foreboding sense of drama. I also have a strong affinity to the Arthur’s Pass regional park and so it has been great drawing on this to write an orchestral piece,” says Adams.
"As part of the process I have been building a large percussion instrument using big pvc downpipes and I can’t wait to hear this with the orchestra."
Adams has had works commissioned, performed and read by a wide variety of groups including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, NZ Trio, Auckland Chamber Orchestra, Jade String Quartet and Southern Sinfonia and his works have been performed around the world. He is a former Mozart Fellow and was the inaugural University of Otago Wallace Arts Trust Artist in Residence.
An earlier performance of Contemporary Triptych (Wellington) can be viewed here.
