What would Beethoven think You compose a symphony and then hand its premiere over to utterly untrained conductors. Then again, Beethoven never played a kumara or his beard.
Aussie-turned-Wellingtonian Adam Page has done these things. Now he is in the process of composing a three-part symphony to be performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in the Te Papa foyer on November 30.
His brief was to include audience participation, so Page is devising a composition that can be arranged in different orders and still make musical sense.
Five “subconductors” in the audience will be given cards to hold up at a time in the concert of their own choosing.
Each card corresponds to a section of the symphony. When each is held up, conductor Hamish McKeich will have the job of weaving that piece into the performance. “I have my work cut out for me,” Page said. “This is the first symphony I have ever written, and I have to write four to five versions of it.”
And he won’t even be able to sit back and watch it being performed – he’ll be playing saxophone in the orchestra.
He has written for big bands, but never for a group as big as the orchestra, with its 80-plus musicians.
“This is something I have never done but I have always dreamed of doing.”
Education manager Samantha Cockerill said the orchestra played each year at Te Papa and usually stuck to a standard orchestral concert, but this year decided to to go for something more interactive.
A few orchestra members had worked with Page and recommended him.
In some of his past solo shows, Page has played modified raw vegetables, and has turned his beard into an instrument.
“I can create a whole groove using just my beard,” he once said.
But Ms Cockerill said symphony orchestra members would not be ditching their instruments for groceries. “I don’t think there will be any carrots or zucchinis. But you can never quite tell with Adam.”
A competition would be held to find the five “subconductors”, she said.
The only requirement was “to have absolutely no musical background”.
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