Jessie Leov Music

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2022 APRA Professional Development Award

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Incredibly humbled to have been selected to receive an APRA Professional Development Award for 2022 alongside five other Kiwi songwriters and composers.

The grant will enable me to work with brilliant composer/sonic artist Garling Wu on a collaborative project bringing together our backgrounds in contemporary composition, songwriting and electroacoustic and exploring the interplay between these musical mediums. Throughout the project I’ll be learning from Garling and immersed in the world of electroacoustic composition, with the goal of incorporating this into my practice moving forward.

Feeling grateful and excited for what’s to come!

You can read about all the recipients and their work here.

 

Upcoming Performance | Auckland Youth Choir

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I’m excited to sing in The Hope of Loving later this month with Auckland Youth Choir, our second concert out of three this year. We’re performing a stunning set of works by American composer Jake Runestad as well as four works by choir members, including my piece for a cappella mixed voices, Let My Country Awake. It will be the third performance of this particular piece – it was first performed July 2021 by members of Voices NZ at the NZ Choral Federation Choral Connect, and then in May 2022 by Celebris Ensemble in Michigan, USA. This will be the first time I’ve sung one of my own pieces!

It’s going to be a fantastic evening. Tickets are available here, 7:30pm August 20th at St-Matthew-in-the-City.

SOUNZ Blog | Call of the Ocean: A look back at the collaborative process

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Back in 2020 I had the immense pleasure of joining forces with Nelson Bays Harmony Chorus to create a new piece of music, thanks to funding from the SOUNZ Community Commission. We worked together over nine months to a create a new a cappella work for upper voices and percussion, Call of the Ocean, which the chorus premiered at the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts in June 2021. SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music has published an interview, looking back at our collaboration, with musical director Kathy Jamieson, chorus members Ruth Townsend and Carole Brown, and myself.

It was lovely to reflect on what was a truly special experience. Follow the link below to read the interview on the SOUNZ Blog.

Call of the Ocean: A look back at the collaborative process

marble, bark, silver | 2022 NZ Composer Sessions

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I’m thrilled to share that my work marble, bark, silver has been selected for this year’s NZ Composer Sessions taking place at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington in September. Nine orchestral pieces by NZ composers will be recorded by the NZSO during the Sessions – I’m really looking forward to hearing everyone’s work.

marble, bark, silver was part of my masters portfolio and was inspired by a series of three poems by NZ poet Deborah Norrie-Jones. I can’t wait to hear it brought to life by the talented musicians of the NZSO.

Very grateful to be taking part!

2022 NZ Composer Sessions | Ngā Huihuinga Hāpai i ngā Kaitoko o Aotearoa