22 May 2012

Just the right image

17/08/2011 10:11:00 a.m.

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New Zealand School of Music’s Big Band trumpeters Dave Kempton, Michael Costello, Imogen Thirlwall, James Wisnesky, and Ben Hunt showing a fine selection of their instruments.

New Zealand School of Music’s Big Band trumpeters Dave Kempton, Michael Costello, Imogen Thirlwall, James Wisnesky, and Ben Hunt showing a fine selection of their instruments.

SHE plays jazz on her trumpet and sings opera for light relief.
Imogen Thirlwall might be just one of the band, but she must be exactly the right image for the New Zealand School of Music. She plays jazz trumpet with the NZSM’s Big Band under Rodger Fox,  and sings opera -  most lately  in Midsummer Night’s Dream at Victoria University.
Imogen came down from Tauranga on a Victoria University scholarship  to do a BMus in voice and music studies (as well as a BA in English) and seems never to have looked back. She’s got those degrees, won another scholarship, and is now doing an honours year in voice and and music.
“Being with the School of Music’s Big Band has been one of the best experiences of my life,” she enthuses. “It started in 2008 when we toured with trumpeter Clay Jenkins,  then in 2009 we recorded Run for Cover which won best NZ Jazz Album, and in 2010 we recorded Funk City OLA and we’re very much looking forward to see what happens to that.”
“It’s wonderful to play with all these amazing musicians who tour in New Zealand. They’re such nice guys and the way the school works the younger players get to work with the more experienced students and it all gets sort of handed down.  Everyone wins”.
Thirlwall is very much looking forward to the NZSM’s Jazz Festival. This first time event is both an  interschool  jazz competition, and  a chance for students to hear and learn from top people in the industry.
Around 20 secondary school bands and combos from as far away as Auckland and Christchurch are competing for best instrumentalist, composition, improvisation, arrangement, and young musician, as well as  band and combo prizes.
Three “heavies” from overseas will judge.   
• Russian born Alex Sipiagin, the top trumpeter who was inspired by hearing what few jazz recordings were available in Russia when he was 15, and who now lives and plays mostly with big name bands in New York.  
• Drummer Steve Houghton who’s got more than 100 recordings to his credit, and is professor of percussion and jazz at at Indiana University.  
• Bob Sheppard whose music on flutes clarinets and saxophones has featured with more important jazz names than we’ve room for.
They’ll feature along with Rodger Fox’s Jazz Orchestra, and the NZSM’s own 20 strong Big Band in what has the makings of a jazz night not to missed.
NZSM Gala Jazz Concert, Wellington Town Hall, August 19.
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Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Briefs

  • A question of nutrition

    Controversial Washington-based nutritionist Sally Fallon-Morell is to speak in Wellington on March 29.
    Fallon-Morell is the co-founder of the American food lobby group the Weston A. Price Foundation and the author of Nourishing Traditions. She advocates for the consumption of nutritionally dense foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, stocks and broths, and whole raw dairy products.
    Fallon-Morell will speak at St Patrick’s College Hall on March 29.

  • Relay for cancer

    Organisers say Sunday’s Relay for Life is full to capacity with hundreds of Wellingtonians registered for the event.
    A total of 88 teams, made up of 10 to 500 members, plan to take part with a further 25 teams on the waiting list.
    The 24 hour relay, the Cancer Society’s biggest fundraising event of the year, takes place at Frank Kitts Park from 4pm on March 31.

  • Osteoarthritis awareness

    Arthritis New Zealand has launched a nationwide campaign raise awareness about osteoarthritis. 
    Arthritis is New Zealand’s leading cause of disability, affecting 305,000 adults, and osteoarthritis is its most common form.
    The campaign features television commercials and an interactive website.


  • Wild walk

    Take part in the Big Walk at Zealandia on March 31.
    Walkers can choose a two, five or 10 kilometre walk catering to all fitness levels.
    Money raised will go to the Foundation for Youth Development.

  • School pool

    The opening of the new Khandallah School pool this week means hundreds of children will be able to continue their swimming lessons.
    The pool was the first to receive a grant from Wellington City Council’s Schools Pools Partnership Fund, a fund set up in 2010 to help schools improve their pool facilities.
    Grants from the fund have also been made for pools at Wellington East Girls’ College, Barhampore School and Tawa School.

  • Easter bikers

    Motorcyclists are invited to get on their bikes and collect Easter eggs for families support from the Wellington City Mission.
    The charity run on April 1 is organised by motorcycle lobby group BONZ.
    Eggs can be donated at Red Baron Motorcylces in Alicetown. The registration fee for bikers is $10, plus the cost of Easter eggs.

  • Crafty

    Made on Marion opens on the site of the former Golding Handicrafts site in Marion St, from April 1.  They will continue to supply craft materials.

  • Ze upgrade

    Taranaki Street fuel users will notice that the Z Energy’s former Shell Service Station is closed.  Z are doing a “total revamp”.
    The job will take four weeks.

  • Newlands Moves

    Developer Ayal Aharoni has agreed to build only 90 instead of 220 houses on his six and a half hectares above Ngauranga Gorge in Newlands.  Only low density occupation will be allowed on the remaining 8.4 hectares.


  • Baring Head

    There's a new  draft plan out for what should happen at Baring Head.  It outlines how the Greater Wellington Regional council would like to manage the newest addition to its regional parks network. Grazing animals will go, motorised vehicles will be prohibited, predators will be controlled, and the lighthouse will be preserved. Submissions are invited.


  • It’s a wonder

    A new childcare centre in Newtown says it is dedicated to helping kids grow up healthy in mind, body and spirit. Little Wonders Childcare on Rintoul Street is an independent early childhood education and learning centre, the sixth centre to be opened by its Auckland-based owner. It caters to 100 children aged between three months and five years old and has been open for a little more than seven weeks.

  • Festival treats

    CHILDREN have not been forgotten by organisers of the New Zealand International Arts Festival.
    For a perfect first theatrical experience White tells the story of friends Cotton and Winkle who live in a world where there is no colour and everything is startlingly white. That is until a brightly coloured egg tumbles out of the sky and changes their world for ever.
    White plays at Capital E from March 7-11.
    The tale of Peter and the World also promises to be a magical night for all ages. Sergei Prokofiev’s classic children’s tale is told through film and live music from the NZ Symphony Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre on March 9.
    March 11 is Young Writers and Readers Day and readings from children’s writers and illustrators Lynley Dodd and Gavin Bishop.

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