The members of the decidedly unstuffy NZTrio chamber music group are bringing their trademark verve to Tauranga later this month with a programme by contemporary composers.
In Sway, Justine Cormack (on an 1868 violin), Ashley Brown (1762 cello) and Sarah Watkins (piano) will play works including Grooveboxes by 42-year-old American Kenji Bunch, Ultra Violet by 32-year-old Claire Cowan of Auckland, So Many Rivers by 80-year-old expat Kiwi Judy Bailey, and An Eroica Trio by 54-year-old Brazilian-American Raimundo Penaforte.
Regularly selling out performances around the country and playing together for more than a decade, the trio has a commitment to making live music relevant in a digital age.
The trio members, all good mates off-stage too, love supporting New Zealand composers and this year have run an inaugural composing competition, receiving 41 scores with 18 progressing to workshop stage. The finalists will be played in public performances next week. The trio has collaborated with dance and theatre companies, performed on film scores, played with musicians using traditional Maori instruments and presented work by jazz legend Mike Nock.
Kiwi composer David Hamilton said last month that one of the joys of writing for NZTrio was "that you know they can damned near do anything".
In 2013 they took part in the cultural exchange O Cambodia, a memorial suite to the victims of Pol Pot, in which they partnered with traditional local musicians to perform works by Cambodian and Kiwi composers.