Cantabs and proud of it. Photo: Supplied / Jubilate Singers
Good things come in twelves - Philip Norman certainly thinks so.
The director of the Christchurch choir Jubilate Singers introduces its next concert, which features a dozen songs by twelve Canterbury composers setting the words of a dozen Canterbury poets.
Speaking with RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump, Norman says a dozen has a nice ring to it.
More importantly, he wanted the choir's latest concert to be a celebration of the Canterbury music and arts scene.
The new musical strains came mainly from the plains. Photo: Sara Kross
Folk in Wellington and further north sometimes forget there's a thriving culture "down here", he says.
The themes touched on by the poets include everything from the ash of the 2020 Australian bush fires that stained the glaciers of the Southern Alps, to one poet's meditation on their poetry writing - the latter being the creation of New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate, Tusiata Avia.
Norman says the way local composers have set those words is just as varied, although in keeping with the choir's name, there'll be a tendency towards the upbeat.
And if you're wondering why Jubilate Singers hasn't programmed its concert for Canterbury Anniversary Day (14 November), that's because the concert is timed as a prelude this year's Word Festival in Christchurch.
Philip Norman will conduct Jubilate Singers' "In Praise of Living Poets" concert at The Piano in Christchurch from 2.30pm, Sunday 24 August.
Philip Norman: keeping it local. Photo: Gareth Watkins/Wallace Arts Trust/Lilburn Trust
