Jessie Leov Music

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New year, new opportunities #2019

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Having already made our way into the second month of the New Year, I feel like it’s time to stock of what has happened so far.

January was an interesting month. It wasn’t as productive as I had hoped but that may have been due to the New Year holiday period, my mid-month 8-day trip to the North Island, and my 4-day stint in Christchurch/Auckland at the end of the month.

Despite my travels I did a couple of gigs with my solo singer/pianist hat on and also completed a few projects for clients. I was fortunate to be contracted to compose and produce the music for this short promo video for Little Pig Building Company, created by Lifeform Labs.

It was a great experience and I hope to continue building up a portfolio of music for screen this year. My goal is to start gaining professional experience in the screen industry (film/TV) as I would love to get into production sound or post-production music/sound. This year is all about searching for opportunities and saying yes!

The Little Pig Building Company - Building Quality Homes

While I’m currently based in Nelson, I’ll be taking a 5-day trip to Auckland/Hawkes Bay to reunite with my quartet, run some school workshops and rehearse for the upcoming Sweet Adelines Quartet contest in Dunedin which we’re competing in for the third time.

Alongside this I’ll be working on finishing the score for my musical theatre collaboration ‘Take Back The Universe’, with my friend and playwright/composer/songwriter/musician Marlon Richards, which will be getting some workshop exposure later this year! This will take place in Wellington where I’m most likely heading sometime in the coming months.

Basically I have plenty to keep me occupied, most of which doesn’t bring in much dosh at this very moment but I’m willing to keep putting in the hard yards and build up my network so I can live that freelance self-employed creative life! That’s all for now Xx

the wilds | 2018 NZSO Todd Young Composer Awards

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I recently had the incredible privilege of traveling down to Wellington to have my orchestral work the wilds recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Along with seven other young composers I was selected to take part in this year’s NZSO Todd Foundation Young Composer Awards. The NZSO paid for our flights and accommodation to come to Wellington and take part in this two-day event to have our works rehearsed and recorded by the NZSO.

It was a mind-blowing experience hearing my music brought to life by these talented musicians and definitely the highlight of my career so far.

Check out RNZ’s article on the event here. 

I’m not permitted to share the recording publicly but if you want to hear it send me a message and I’ll send you the private link.

So grateful for the experience, still buzzing, and looking forward to the next opportunity!

String quartet ‘threads’ – premiere

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I was lucky enough to have my string quartet piece ‘threads’ performed as part of the final concert of the annual Nelson Composer’s Workshop run by the Composers Association of New Zealand, held at the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts in July this year. It was a super interesting experience getting to see the musicians rehearsing my piece – seeing which bits were tricky and needed tweaking, what came together quickly, and how the piece came across in general when performed live.

I’m looking forward to having my orchestra piece ‘the wilds’ workshopped by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the end of November as part of the annual NZSO Todd Corporation Young Composer Awards.

threads - Jessie Leov (string quartet)

Composing Reel

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Here is compilation of clips featuring my original music, written for the documentary Birds of a Feather by Working Edge Pictures. I was able to collaborate with director Nina Wells to write some tracks for this piece, and it was a superb learning experience for me. I worked from guide tracks that she sent, and wrote a bunch of different tracks mostly centered around piano, that fit in with different scenes from the film. Hoping it’s the first of many such collaborations that I get to experience :)

The full-length tracks can be found on my soundcloud here.

Birds of a Feather Reel | Jessie Leov

Grammys Galore

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A few of my absolute favourite musicians have just won Grammys! Time to celebrate!

Jacob Collier

I’ve been rather obsessed with this young jazz sensation since a few years ago when my music lecturer showed us one of his youtube videos. JC has since continued to create incredibly innovative re-imaginings of classic songs as well as releasing his self-written, recorded and produced album In My Room – which has now got him two Grammys! NO-ONE DESERVES THEM MORE! He’s been touring the world with his one-man show for months now…… definitely on my must-see-live list.

 

 

Pentatonix

I’ve been a huge fan of this a cappella quintet ever since seeing them win The Sing Off in 2011. They’ve only conquered the ENTIRE WORLD since then and continue to bring a cappella into the mainstream music scene! Their Christmas albums in particular are to die for.

 

Snarky Puppy

This jazz ensemble has been on my radar for the past year or so ever since their collab with Lalah Hathaway went ‘viral’. I’ve brought myself up to speed with their music by listening pretty obsessively since then and their latest album TOTALLY deserved this Grammy award. Big dream of mine to see them live one day!