Gifted musical trio to play in Greytown

SPECIAL CONCERT: Kiwi singer songwriter Charlotte Yates will stage A Special Concert at the Little Theatre in Greytown on June 28 alongside producer and multi-instrumentalist Gil Eva Craig and taonga puoro intrumentalist Rob Thorne.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

A trio of innovative Kiwi musicians will stage A Special Concert in Greytown as part of the Arts On Tour New Zealand programme.

Spokeswoman Diana Moir said the concert at the Greytown Little Theatre on June 28 will feature singer-songwriter Charlotte Yates, producer-musician Gil Eva Craig and taonga puoro instrumentalist Rob Thorne.

The event will be the final show in a 17-date tour that launches on Friday and at its completion will have taken the trio to dates across North Island from as far as Wellington in the south to Kaitaia in the Far North.

Ms Moir said Yates first made headlines as part of the 1990s all-girl band When the Cat's Been Spayed.

"Since then, besides recording six albums of her own, she's studied contemporary music technology and composition in Australia, produced two Melbourne Fringe Arts Festivals, been artist in residence in Christchurch and directed and produced the critically acclaimed CDs Baxter, Tuwhare and Ihimaera."

Yates will be joined on her latest tour by award-winning sound designer and multi-instrumentalist Gil Eva Craig - the two will perform songs from Yates' album Archipelago, which was co-produced and arranged by Craig.

Setting the scene in the first half of the show will be Rob Thorne, of Ngati Tumutumu, who "creates a transcendent aural experience" through the use of modern loop technology and traditional Maori instruments made of stone, bone, shell and wood, Ms Moir said.

Thorne is a musician with more than a quarter century of performance experience in bands and solo, she said, and his work with traditional Maori instruments led to his MA in social anthropology, and work both academically and musically with master musician Richard Nunns QSM, as well as collaborating with Phil Dadson, Dudley Benson and Ariana Tikao.

Thorne has researched, taught and demonstrated at museums and marae throughout the country and travelled to the Peruvian Andes to experience and research ancient indigenous sound-healing techniques.

Thorne will perform Whaia te Maramatanga, "a highly concentrated conversation between past and present " and a personal exploration of the healing qualities of an ancient practice through the medium of sound", at the Arts on Tour NZ concert in Greytown.

- The Greytown Little Theatre show runs from 3pm to 7pm on June 28. Tickets cost $15 each and are available online at eventfinder.co.nz.