PRESS RELEASE: STARTS
The music of New Zealand composers will feature in Festival Synthese 2006 in Bourges, France, regarded as the world’s
most prestigious festival of electroacoustic music.
Lissa Meridan, composer and Director of the Lilburn Electroacoustic Studio at the New Zealand School of Music, Victoria
University, Wellington, will present a seminar and three concerts of New Zealand electroacoustic music at the
international festival.
"Douglas Lilburn, who set up the studio at Victoria forty years ago, forged an international reputation in this genre of
music through innovative ideas and techniques," Lissa comments. "I will present a seminar about Lilburn at Bourges and
follow that with a concert featuring his electroacoustic music. A second concert will feature works by other New Zealand
composers: John Rimmer, Chris Cree Brown, Stacey Pilcher, Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns as well as the premiere a
new work by Jack Body called Intimate History n°1 : Yono.
The third ‘concert’ will be a presentation of intermedia works for video and electroacoustic music curated by Jack Body
and hosted by Meridan at the Festival Synthese. Featured works are City Respirations by Matthew Lambourn, Now by Philip
Dadson, Say by John Cousins, and both Noise and the award winning Generation by David Downes.”
ENDS
Background:
Electroacoustic music is music that is created in the studio through the manipulation and reworking of sound samples
taken from natural acoustic sources.
Festival Synthese 2006, run by the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB), will take
place from June 2-11. More information about the festival can be found at http://www.imeb.net/.
SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand music, is dedicated to promoting, fostering and providing the music of New Zealand
composers. More information is available from the comprehensive website at www.sounz.org.nz.