The Hutt News: Concert series set
- The Hutt News
- 8 Mar 2011
A 21-year-old music student who first became enthralled by the fiddle when he was a toddler watching his parents do Scottish Country dancing will demonstrate how far he’s come in music at a concert in Upper Hutt next Tuesday.
John Roxburgh, a post-graduate performance student at the New Zealand School of Music (NZSM), will play a movement from a viola concerto by New Zealand composer Alfred Hill at the first monthly concert of a new series at Expressions featuring NZSM students.
This won’t be the only time the little known Hill concerto will be played in the Hutt Valley. Roxburgh will perform the full concerto with the Hutt City Orchestra on June 18.
Alfred Hill (1869-1960) spent the first 40 years of his life in New Zealand but studied in Leipzig. ‘‘I think he may have fallen out of favour during World War II due to the heavy Germanic influence in his music,’’ Roxburgh says.
‘‘It’s a cool piece for viola composed in about 1940. It’s Romantic, more in the vein of the 1880s-1890s, with English and French influences.’’ Roxburgh began learning violin by the Suzuki method when he was five, switching to the viola when he was 14. He joined the National Youth Orchestra at age 15. After college he faced a dilemma between choosing music and medicine but opted for the former after receiving advice that it would be easier to do a medical degree later.
‘‘I continued with music because of the way it affects me; I love to be able to feel the emotion of the music. But I miss all the science stuff as well. Last year I did a first year physics paper as an elective and really enjoyed it,’’ he says.
After completing a Master of Musical Arts from NZSM next year, Roxburgh will seek to join a training orchestra in England or Europe. ‘‘There’s nothing like playing some big work like Sibelius’ Second Symphony in a big orchestra. When you go into the fourth movement and it crescendos upwards into a big dramatic arrival, you feel elated – like you are part of something heroic.’’
Expressions director Stephanie Cottrill says the aim of the Expressions Live series is to provide beautiful music for visitors, as well a performance platform for some of the NZSM’s finest young musicians.
Article Name:Concert series set
Publication:The Hutt News
Start Page:21
End Page:21
