TOI TANGATA | ARTS UPDATE

25 October 2019

News

UC Arts at the Arts Centre School of Music

We are continuing our performance exams next week, held in the Recital Room at the Arts Centre location, unless otherwise stated, and are open to the public. Please note, our students' exams will run roughly every half hour: Wednesday 30 October: 10.00am-12.00pm: Percussion (at 35 Creyke Road) 7.00pm: Ensemble concert Thursday 31 October: 8.45am-5.00pm: Strings recitals 7.00pm: Piano recital Friday 1 November: 10.00am-5.30pm: Piano recitals Upcoming concerts

• Balinese Music and Dance: UC Gamelan – Friday 25 October, 7.00pm – Venue: The Piano: Centre for Music and Arts

An evening of Balinese music and dance featuring the UC community-based group, led by I Made Kartawan. UC Gamelan Ensemble is a student and community-based Balinese Gamelan music and dance group from the University of Canterbury. This performance celebrates the third year of activity for the ensemble under the instruction of UC postgraduate student, Made Kartawan. This concert will also serve as Made’s first DMA recital as he has been focusing on pedagogical research in relation to teaching gamelan here in New Zealand to non-Balinese students. The group will premiere one of Made’s new compositions, Kanda Pat, and will also perform an original

piece of his created in 2012 for the sacred Barong Telek dance in Sidakarya village, Bali. Made explains his excitement about leading the ensemble here in Christchurch: "I am impressed with the students who are interested to learn the music seriously and always to make an effort to practice individually.” The group rehearses every Wednesday and Thursday night and strives to learn everything by memory. This unique performance features traditional Balinese music styles, dance and cultural elements. The performance setting will also reflect the Balinese Hindi ritual with offerings. Three of Made’s frequent collaborators from Bali join us for this performance: Made Murdana is a composer and Suci and Novi are dancers. The dance items include some masked dances which portray various characters from traditional Balinese rituals, including an old man, and colored masks for positive and negative forces. The Gamelan Gong Kebyar is a traditional set of instruments from Bali in Indonesia that is mainly comprised of percussion instruments. The bronze metallophones are paired in tuning to produce a characteristic shimmering tone and the musicians often perform complex interlocking rhythmic patterns. The music can be extremely dynamic and varied in tempo depending on the interaction between the dancer and the lead drummer. Audience members will hear two different ensembles with unique scales: pelog represented by Gong Kebyar, and slendro by Gender Wayang. The concert also features two of Made’s original pieces. Contact course coordinator justin.dehart@canterbury.ac.nz if you are interested in joining the group. No experience is necessary, and everyone is welcome.

School of Music student composers Robert Bryce and Rakuto Kurano enjoying some applause at the conclusion of the NZ Trio Winners Concert on Monday at the University of Auckland. Rakuto and Robert were among a select group of composers chosen for Monday’s Winners Concert for the 2019 NZ Trio Composing Competition.

Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities

There have been a few changes in our museum team recently. This month the team has been joined by Natalie Looyer who is working as a Collection Technician on a fixed term contract to December. Natalie writes “I have just completed my Master of Arts in Classics and it is a pleasure to be working with the Teece Museum where I can utilise my research skills and knowledge and learn more about museum practices. One of the roles I will be taking on is researching content for next year’s museum exhibition on beauty and desire in the ancient world.”

Upcoming events: • Who’s Smarticus Quiz Night! – Friday 8 November, 6.00pm

– Venue: Teece Museum, UC Arts City Location UC Classoc and the Teece Museum present a celebratory end of semester quiz night. The quiz will feature a range of classically themed and general knowledge questions designed to prove once and for all 'Who is Smarticus'! Enter a team (up to 5 people per team max) and get quizzical. General Public $5 per person entry. FREE for current Classoc members. Refreshments will be provided. Museum doors open from 5.30pm, quiz starts 6.00pm. Places are limited so please register to attend – find out more online here. Prizes generously provided by: Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora, Bunsen Café, Duo Dining Room and Bar, Lumiere Cinemas, and Zen Sushi and Dumplings.

Classics

Patrick O’Sullivan delivered the following paper at a specialist conference on the lyric poet, Pindar: ‘Ambivalence and Power: Music in Pindar’s Pythian I’, Pindar in Sicily Conference, at the Exedra Mediterranean Centre, Syracuse, Sicily, October 13-16. The event also included visits to ancient sites in and around Syracuse, including the ancient theatre - still a venue for plays performed today - and the infamous quarries where huge numbers of Athenian prisoners met their death after their failed invasion of Sicily in the late fifth century BC.

English

This week Erin Harrington featured in an article on Stuff.co.nz about the appeal of horror, which marks the release of a new local streaming series The Basement. https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/116592159/why-horror-is-coming-out-of-the-basement?fbclid=IwAR0rv5N1cukO_t8CzAlsUGurhOAP7P86oh0Xz3j4HHW0-IigdRtzfCy5ab8

She also appeared in The Spinoff Review of Books, reviewing Stephen Chbosky’s new novel Imaginary Friend. https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/21-10-2019/review-imaginary-friend-a-blood-soaked-novel-that-recalls-stranger-things/

Christina Stachurski directed and designed a production of Audrey Cefaly’s one act play, Fin and Euba. After winning the Canterbury and Westland division of TheatreFest, Christina’s production won awards for the Best Overall Design and Best Overall Production (Adult) at the national finals in Wellington.

Digital Humanities

Christopher Thomson gave a keynote address at the University of Otago's Digital Humanities Expo on 14 October. The talk was titled "Connections and Contradictions: Unpacking the Digital Humanities Lab". He also presented a workshop on the same day, entitled "String Games: Getting started with text extraction in Python".

School of Fine Arts

Following the success of last year's inaugural open studio exhibition, we follow the same formula in 2019, opening our doors to the public for an extended period. Featuring works drawn exclusively from our 3rd, 4th, Honours and MFA studio-artists, ILAM 2019 is once again an astutely curated snapshot of contemporary creative developments within the school. This year’s SELECT judge, Cam McCracken, Director of Dunedin Public Art Gallery, will review the exhibition in its final form and from it designate three artist-recipients whose work will permanently enter the University of Canterbury Art Collection.

The launch of the exhibition, School prizes, and announcement of the SELECT recipients is from 5pm, Friday 8 November.

Exhibition hours: 11am – 2pm, Saturday & Sunday 9 - 10 November

10am – 4pm, Monday - Wednesday 11 – 13 November 10am – 1pm, Thursday 14 November

Free car parking is available in the Clyde car park (only) off Arts Rd.

Global, Cultural and Language Studies

Ako Aotearoa National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards Congratulations to Dr Masayoshi Ogino on being awarded one of the prestigious Ako Aotearoa National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards for 2019, winner of the 2018 UCSA Lecturer of the Year award for the College of Arts! Masa adds this award to the UC Teaching Award, the 2018 UCSA Lecturer of the Year award for the College of Arts, as well Certificate of Commendation from the Japanese Ambassador that he received last year. Masa is an innovative, enthusiastic, and empathetic teacher who enhances student experience through creating an inclusive learning community, involving third-year students mentoring first-year ones. His consistently exceptional performance is truly inspiring. UCSA Lecturer of the Year (Arts) Congratulations to Sergio Redondo, winner of the 2019 UCSA Lecturer of the Year award for the College of Arts! This award follows on from Sergio capturing the inaugural UCSA “Shady Award” (of the “Make Your Own Award” category) in 2018. Sergio takes a highly innovative, engaging and entertaining approach to his teaching in Spanish and is known for his “shady remarks, pedagogical sarcasm, use of apps, maracas and squeaky toys.” The Department sends warm congratulations to both Masa and Sergio and wishes them every success for years to come. Japanese Programme The Japanese Programme was delighted to welcome the Japanese Consul, Mr Tsunakake, to UC last Wednesday. The Consul was on campus having kindly agreed to present the “Excellence in Japanese” awards and the special “Consul’s

Award” to our students, and to help us celebrate their achievements. The programme congratulates the awardees, Paul McCliskie, Santanna Wei Shan Foo, Michael Whales Alexa Wang and Kerridwen Russ, with special congratulations to Zea Rose who received the Consul’s Prize and Shield. Alexa Wang and Andraya Heyes were congratulated on being selected to represent UC in the JSANZ National Japanese Speech Contest, and the achievements of our students in the Language Perfect (global) Languages Championships were also acknowledged with certificates going to Louie Armstrong and Thomas Patterson (Gold awards), Andre Moneda (Silver award), Cecilia Gomez and Nurul Rosli (Bronze awards) and Isaac Walton (Credit award).

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