By Gareth Farr
Biography
Gareth Farr was born on the 29th of February, 1968, in Wellington New Zealand. Throughout his life, he attended different kinds of Universities around New Zealand and around the world. Throughout his life, he had attended three universities. Gareth Farr started his studies off in Auckland at the University of Auckland. He had studied, electronic music, orchestration and composition while he was there. During his studies there, Gareth Farr had also become a member of the Auckland Philharmonia. He had performed and become a member there. He also became a part of the Karlheinz Company. In 1988, he moved back to Wellington where he studied some more music especially in composition.He …show more content…
He also worked with NZSO which is New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Before he moved to New York to get advanced studies he was a part of NZSO. He had attended Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York which got him to know more about music and widen his musicality. After university, Gareth Farr became a very successful composer in New Zealand and had notable achievements as a composer, including types of works he wrote, including, orchestral music, solo music, percussion orchestra music, symphonies and chamber music. Some examples of pieces of these genres that he had written includes, Lilith’s dream of ecstasy (for a large orchestra), From Forgotten Forest (for solo harp), Kendhang Kalih (for two percussion), Queen of Demons (for symphony orchestra) and Naga Baba (for chamber orchestra). These were many examples of his noticeable achievements and composition. His most famous piece was ‘From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs.’ This piece was very famous throughout New Zealand especially. Gareth Farr first decided to compose this piece as he was selected to compose a piece for the 50th New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s birthday. Gareth was …show more content…
It was commissioned for the 50th birthday of NZSO (New Zealand Symphony Orchestra). Gareth farr was chosen to compose this piece after he had performed his other piece ‘Tabulah Pacific’. The Great Sea Gongs was composed for an orchestra and the Javanese Gamelan. It was performed on the 14th August, 1995 at the Victoria University in Wellington. This piece was performed in front of the artistic manager of NZSO, Roger Lloyd. Roger had personally asked Gareth to compose a piece for the 50th birthday of NZSO. He had also asked Gareth to try and involve multicultural instruments into this, and so, this piece was composed for many different types of instruments, including unusual instruments that are usually in an orchestra, e.g. the