A clarion call to arms, for trumpet and pūtātara

The Fund has, since 2016, awarded $400,000 to Australian and New Zealand composers creating brave new musical works, including concerts, operas and cutting-edge compositions.

Dr de Castro-Robinson, of the School of Music at the University of Auckland, was the only New Zealander among the seven successful applications this year.

The works proposed this year reflected themes of place, environmental concerns and climate change, says John Davis, CEO of the Australian Music Centre, “the themes that dominate much of Australia and New Zealand’s social and political agenda, demonstrating that the art form engages with the ‘here and now’ in very direct ways.”

Dr de Castro-Robinson’s proposed trumpet concerto, Clarion, will be written for New Zealand-born trumpeter and conductor, Bede Williams, currently Head of Instrumental Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.

The work will represent “a clarion call to arms across oceans, for us to wake up to climate change and rising sea levels,” she says.

It is not the first time that climate change has been reflected in de Castro-Robinson’s compositions. Her 2018 work orchestral work Tipping Point was a “cautionary sonic statement” written for her son Cyprian on his 26th birthday.

“It dealt with the vision of my son's generation’s future, the impending crises of climate change and the threat of nuclear war,” she says.

Performances of Clarion planned in Scotland, New Zealand and elsewhere will highlight research from the world leading Oceans Institute of the University of St Andrews.

It will also provide a new context for the playing of the pūtātara, the Māori conch shell trumpet which, unlike other trumpets, has a wooden mouthpiece. It will be played by Mr Williams.

This type of project requires research, long distance collaboration and instrumental experimentation, says Dr de Castro-Robinson, and the APRA Fund “gives a creator the means, the impetus and encouragement to complete a significant work”.