• Chris has been named the 2008 Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago. The Mozart Fellowship was established by the University of Otago in 1969 and is a chance for a composer to work unhindered at his or her craft while enjoying the many benefits of life in the lower South Island. Chris and his partner will move to Dunedin in February.

• Pivotal Orbits is to be included in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's Made in New Zealand programme, 9 May 2008, at the Wellington Town Hall. This New Zealand premiere performance will be conducted by Kenneth Young, alongside works by Helen Bowater, Richard Fuchs, Gao Ping and David Farquhar. .




• Homage to Varese's "Octandre" was premiered by gateseven (cond. Justus Rozemond) on November 15 at St Andrew's on The Terrace

• Chris is working part-time at SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand Music, preparing content for its website relaunch in late 2007.

• Work is under way on a new commission, funded by Creative New Zealand, for percussionist Arnold Marinissen and violinist Marco Roosink. It will be premiered in The Netherlands in 2008 under the banner of Camerata Busoni.

• now i know, a new work funded by Creative New Zealand, was premiered by Gamelan Padhang Moncar at the 12th Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival in July. It featured clarinetist Andrzej Nowicki.

• A studio recording of mandible was made by its commissioner, Andrew Uren, at the Adam Concert Room. James Dunlop engineered the recording. Andrew has performed the work on several occasions, including at the IAMIC Conference and the Nelson Composers Workshop.

• Tickets are booked for a visit to Hong Kong in November/December for the ISCM-ACL World Music Days. Included is a 5 day trip to the Chinese mainland and a night in Macau.

• There have been recent excursions into pop - details will emerge in the coming year!




Chris's PhD was submitted on 14 November '06, ending an arduous three years of academic work. The final year of study was unable to support composition, it being dedicated entirely to thesis research and write-up. However, 2006 did see some composition-related activities:

• circuit:spiral, a finalist in the 2006 Douglas Lilburn Prize, won the competition's Panel Prize

• mandible was performed at the Juilliard School, New York, by bass clarinetist Sean Rice.

• string orchestra work Aufsatz received a closed reading by the NZSO. The recording was made to broadcast standard by Concert FM.

•...vers libre... was played in the Three Generations concert of the Neue Musik aus Neuseeland festival at Musikhochschule Lübeck, Germany.

Chris is now fulfilling a three month contract at the Centre for New Zealand Music, working on the development of content for its new SOUNZ Online project. And he is looking for new compositional opportunities.