Commemorating The Aberfan And Pike River Mining Disasters Via A Concert Of Sir Karl Jenkins' Latest Composition

Project 2017-07-03 15:40:51 +1200

WITH YOUR HELP WE CAN RAISE $15,000 IN THREE WEEKS! 

We wish to crowdfund a very special concert we are bringing to Wellington on Labour Day, 23rd October, this year: The New Zealand premiere of Cantata Memoria: For the Children of Aberfan.

The concert is a performance of the latest composition of Sir Karl Jenkins, the world’s most performed contemporary choral composer. The work was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the mining disaster in Aberfan, Wales, where 116 children and 28 adults perished. The world premiere was performed in Cardiff in October 2016.

Although Cantata Memoria: For the Children of Aberfan was written to commemorate a specific tragedy - the Aberfan mine disaster in Wales - it also relates to other heartbreaking tragedies. For example, our own Pike River Mine Disaster, where 29 people lost their lives. Both disasters were preventable, and both disasters left communities devastated by loss, grief, and anger. Family members from Pike River victims will attend the concert and see it as a fitting way to pay tribute to those lost.

The exquisite music communicates the journey from loss, despair, and darkness to light.

Listen here to the beautiful music for yourself - in a Youtube video of the recording Lament for the Valley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xGiww9TyD4

Who is performing the concert?

The concert will be performed by the Wellington Youth Orchestra (WYO), with an amazing line-up of professional soloists in association with combined adult and children’s choirs from Wellington, around New Zealand and overseas (over 300 performers). It will be conducted by internationally acclaimed New York-based conductor Dr. Jonathan Griffith, founder and Principal Conductor of Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY). The Wellington Youth Orchestra will also play music on its own, under their music director Simon Brew.

The concert will be performed in the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington. This venue has been chosen because it is the only one in Wellington with enough space to accommodate all  performers. It is also the only venue with adequate facilities to screen a video that was created specifically to accompany this work, and includes archive footage from BBC Wales.

Why is this concert special?

Sir Karl Jenkins’ music is loved around the world because the music symbolises love, loss, grief, anger and righteous indignation – feelings we can all understand and to which we can all relate. The understanding of the music will be enhanced by using state of the art video to show a background video during the concert. As mentioned above, this video was specifically created for this work, and includes archive footage from BBC Wales.

The concert is primarily about the loss of children, with children aptly playing a pivotal role. A large part of the score is sung by Wellington Young Voices and other youth choirs. Young people, will of course also be performing in the Wellington Youth Orchestra. This performance will be of national significance, as choristers from all over the country and from overseas will be taking part.

Cantata Memoria: For the Children of Aberfan will be conducted by the American conductor Dr Jonathan Griffith. Jonathan will rehearse the orchestra and choirs in the weekend leading up to the event and thus allows many New Zealanders to draw on international expertise. 

Dr Griffith is an acclaimed educator and conductor, who won the 2014 and 2015 American Prize in Conducting. Dr Griffith’s Carnegie Hall conducting debut was in 1989. Since then, he has conducted over 100 performances at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Centre, two of the world’s most prestigious concert venues.

Why do we raise funds through PledgeMe?

Staging a production of this magnitude requires not only considerable time but also a considerable sum of money to cover costs.

We are very lucky to have many volunteers spending countless hours to help organise this event, and without their valuable contribution the concert would never take place. But there are still many things to pay for, resulting in a budget close to $90,000:

·         Hiring the costly Michael Fowler Centre, the only venue in Wellington with a stage that is spacious enough for this concert with about 300 performers,

·         Securing the rights to a licence - after many weeks of negotiations - for a video to show during the concert that was specifically created for this work and includes archive footage from BBC Wales,

·         Augmenting the orchestra with extra players - many extra players were once members of the Youth Orchestra themselves,

·         Engaging the contribution of an amazing line-up of professional soloists (Harp, Violin, Euphonium, Cello, Soprano, Baritone) to ensure we do justice to this magnificent work,

·         Preparing the orchestra and the choirs. This includes hiring rehearsal spaces, engaging accompanists and acquiring sheet music from overseas,

·         Paying royalties to the composer,

·         Transportation cost for musical instruments. Instruments will need to be transported from one place to another by professional transport companies,

·         Hiring door-staff, staging-technicians and other support staff for the performance,

·         Engaging internationally acclaimed top musical educator and conductor, Jonathan Griffith, to rehearse the musicians and to conduct the concert. We are very lucky to have Jonathan who graciously offered his services at very low costs. However, we need to pay for his flight, accommodation and other costs.

We are grateful for funding from Wellington City Council and we have applied for additional funding. However, we ask the PledgeMe community to raise enough funds to pay for the engagement of the international conductor Jonathan Griffith who will travel from the USA to spend time in New Zealand to conduct this magnificent concert and event.

We have set the PledgeMe target at $15,000 and ask you to pledge enough to reach this target and make sure that we can ”BRING CARNEGIE HALL TO WELLINGTON”. Your donation is appreciated and the rewards allow you to witness this event that you helped make possible.

If we raise more than the target, we will spend the surplus on making the performance even more spectacular by having a much bigger screen and higher calibre equipment for the video. 

We hope to see you all in the Michael Fowler Centre on Labour Day!

The Cantata Memoria Project Team

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