How are you?

This year looks like it will be a busy year. We have begun working on a project for a concert in may which I am excited about!

News:

I am officially enrolled in my PhD. The christmas break while everyone was away held up a few things however it is now official. I am working on composition – writing music for new spaces with electronic and acoustic instruments. I am sure this journey will be worthwhile and exciting with many new projects to begin and people to meet as well as places to travel to to share music. I have been blessed and lead in this direction, so while taking this step is not something I embarked on lightly I am excited!.

Other big news is that I am getting married soon! So the next few months after the wedding will be fun re-designing my website with my new name and changing emails, cards, etc etc.

I am also writing music for a show called Death of a Salesman. It is an american play written by Arthur Miller in 1949 and details the demise of a man working in sales – I feel sorry for Willy (the salesman) as he slowly becomes confused and bewildered with age meanwhile trying to strive for greater things for himself and his family. The play is being directed by Andrew Kaye, a Hamilton actor/ director / improviser (who just put in a fantastic performance of the Miser in The Miser of Mystery Creek at the 2011 Hamilton Gardens Festival). The play will be staged in Hamilton later on in the year.

So its shaping up to be busy! Take care all!!

Lizzie

From left to right

Juri Seo, Steve Reich, Julia Wolfe, Ruben Naeff, Marcin Stańczyk, Elizabeth Dobson, Timo Andres

Just found some cool photos from the NZSO TODD Young Composers readings held in Sep 2010 and thought I would post them up!. 10 young composers were accepted into the readings to have their pieces read by the orchestra. They were workshopped and recorded over a few days. Composer Alex Taylor had better group shots of all the composers so will have to track one down to post for you all

Official info from the SOUNZ Site:

The NZSO/Todd Corporation Young Composer Awards are an opportunity for young New Zealand composers to have their work assessed by a panel of industry professionals, receive mentoring from an established New Zealand composer and have their work performed by the NZSO.

This year the conductor is Australian Luke Dollman and the composition mentor,Eve de Castro Robinson.

The composers and works for 2010 are:
Mathew Childs Polgara’s Lament
Lizzie Dobson Planare
Robbie Ellis Fanfare 10
Thomas Jenson Trench
Joanie Yee Lee Wind Reflection
Jonathan Mandeno Primordial Chaos
Corwin Newall Avalanche
Arna Shaw Headache;
Alex Taylor six pieces for orchestra and
Umar Zakaria The Persistence of Our Youth

–

Leonard Sakofsky (Lenny) had a big job playing vibes for my piece – I was able to chat to him after, got a picture of him with my score! Thanks heaps Lenny!

My score – with orchestra in the background.. severely bokeh’ed with my 35mm prime lense

Lizzie with the orchestra!

Trust your 2011 is beginning well. For the past few years I have written out big goal sheets for my wall and stuck them above my mirror. It helps to be able to see these on a regular basis so they sink in! All my goals for last year were achieved about the middle of the year so I had to write new ones!

I have quite a few major plans on the horizon. Last year was great, but this year is looking even better!

I am in the process of finishing off a piano piece for my friends sister. He is giving it to her as a wedding present, so I feel rather honoured to be asked to write a piece for the occasion.  The piece is a solo piano work called “You’ll be in all my tomorrows”, semi minimalist and romantic, but with the occasional crunchy harmony which adds interest / substance to the following patterns. I have immediate plans to turn it into an electronic piece, so once this score is off to the printers I will be in the studio to record it.

Take care everyone

Lizzie

Review from

http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=3548

ENGAGING FILMS AND A STRONG SENSE OF RITUAL

A Place to Stand: Re-framing the Body in Motion Karen Barbour and Lisa Perrott with supporting work by Dannielle Jaram, Jenny Spark, Lizzie Dobson and Eli Peters at Telecom Playhouse Theatre, WEL Energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts, Hamilton 18 Nov 2010 [90 minutes] Reviewed by Sue Cheesman, 30 Nov 2010

A Place to Stand:Re framing the body was a show of experimental digital shorts and a performance held in Hamilton at the Telecom Playhouse theatre within the University of Waikato campus.

Muriwai by Dannielle Jaram shot in black and white depicts a girl practicing her poi. Through multiply projections many replications of this girl practicing her poi appear one after the other always slightly to the side and behind the central figure. These shadows seem to allude to the presence of guardians, ancestors or tipuna and the concept of space being three- dimensional is challenged. The sound design by Jenny Spark had a realism about it as though it were a live performance of poi.

Highly Strung a film made by Lisa Perrott  is billed as a surrealist psychodrama cleverly depicting a struggle between puppeteer and puppet an allegory of playing with the notions of ‘multiple self ‘. The music by Julie Grace builds the drama to a climax where the strings of the puppet are cut by a large knife. The final image sees the puppet becomes the audience watching the show. I was captivated by this engaging film and wondered which of my selves would win!

Liminal short film by Karen Barbour explores reflections of the dancing body on the floor spliced through with images of Karen performing taken from the perspective of a camera at floor level.  The dancing body moves in and out of focus as the dance film is conceptualized from a dancer’s perspective as opposed to a film makers.

A place to stand a solo contemporary dance performance work choreographed and danced by Karen Barbour had been presented as creative practice research earlier on that day in a contemporary enthnography conference. This work reinforces Karen’s interests in exploring experiences of cultural and personal identity.

There was a strong intertextual interplay between the live performer, animated text, interactive video and recorded music. Through multiple layering the interplay between the dancer on screen and live performer leaves the viewer to choose their focus.

Crouched low Karen is bathed in green light hovering over what maybe a pool as she turns and cups her hands several times followed by an action of pouring over her head.  She stretches her arms to the side reminiscent of the giant wingspan of an albatross.

At this point I found myself drawn to the projected images of historical snippets of past solo performances and the stunning effect that was created through the use of Isadora software. It seemed like the dancers image was encased in a stream of rain like the constant droplets of a waterfall. Often there was a double image and or echo of the movement on screen and live performance in which we viewed in a single moment dual representations of Karen’s grappling with who she is as a woman living in Aotearoa.

Although I recognized many segments from Karen’s previous works the movement content performed live seemed to be very much in chunks and I found it hard to get a sense of overall cohesion.

The stunning final image was created by light beams slicing the space, making an arch which framed Karen as if she was at the intersection of two worlds both Maori and Pakeha. On reflection it seemed to me that all the differing elements evoked a powerful sense of ritual.

Karen Barbour’s short dance film Liminal is an exploration of how digital dance making can be re-conceptualized from a dancer’s perspective, rather than from a film-maker’s perspective. The result is a re-framing of the dancer’s body through choreographic, compositional and aesthetic strategies that highlight the liminal experience of being between.

Memory Triggers by Lisa Perrott, Jenny Spark and Lizzie Dobson. An interdisciplinary collaborative project which experiments with the notion of haptic audio-visuality, a more tactile, closer-to-the-body form of perception. This series of audiovisual works experiment with various compositions involving referential imagery, whilst also navigating connections between the New Zealand landscape and the human body.

Highly Strung (Lisa Perrott) is a surrealist psychodrama inspired by the Czech tradition of puppet theatre as well as Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). Playing with Freudian and Jungian notions of the ‘multiple self’, Highly Strung is an allegory for power struggle between the inhibited self and the expressive self.

Dannielle Jaram’s Muriwai expresses an indigenous world-view that both space and time are interwoven subjects, neither existing without the other. For Maori, this belief means that we are continually aware of the presence of tipuna or ancestors and their influence on who we are and who we are destined to be.

A Place to Stand is a contemporary dance performance work by Karen Barbour, exploring experiences of cultural and personal identity. Through movement, projected images, sound and text, Karen delves into Pākehā experiences of belonging and multiplicity as a woman of Aotearoa.

Thursday 18 November

8pm

Telecom Playhouse Theatre

WEL Energy Academy of Performing Arts

University of Waikato

Gate 2B, Knighton Road

$5 door sales only

Local Waikato Artist Kurt La Roche organises art exhibitions each month in a vacant cbc retail space. Kurt invited me to exhibit some of my images from my 52 week project.

Sneak peak:

Lizzie

The Echo me In Circles

Info

Selection of the 9 images

Fraser Bremner had his percussion concert at the Taranaki Cathedral on friday night. Titled Pahu - translating from Maori to mean a large wooden hollowed object which they used to hit to communicate to each other over long distances. It was a really fitting title for a percussion concert, one especially featuring works for the marimba!

He played a massive range of music and featured musicians from the taranaki region – His parents Betty and Trevor Bremner on piano and cornet, Jacob Randall and James Fuller on drums, annnddd all the way from wellington! New Zealand’s own Gareth Farr. Gareth, Fraser, Jacob and James joined together for the finale piece to play Little Sea Gongs on tom toms and cymbals. It made for a dramatic finish to the concert!

Fraser gave the New Zealand premier of my setting of Apirana Taylor’s poem Parihaka for vocalizing percussionist. Compeer Brian Clarke sung the poem to Fraser playing. It was really exciting to have it played here at home, especially so close to the site of Parihaka. Thanks heaps Fraser and Brian. Parihaka had its premiere in Perth earlier this year by Australian percussionist Louise Devenish.

Thanks again Fraser for a fantastic concert!

Lizzie

LINK TO PICTURES

Percussionist/drummer Fraser Bremner returns back to New Plymouth for a one-off solo concert. He will be performing the NZ premiere of “Parihaka” by Elizabeth Jane Dobson, as well as premiering new works of his own.

He will be joined on stage with local legends Trevor Bremner, Betty Bremner, Brian Clark; upcoming percussion stars Jacob Randall and James Fuller, and internationally acclaimed composer and performer Gareth Farr!

A huge array of percussion will be on display, including vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, multi percussion and a drum kit (that is bigger than the average kit…).

With a variety of music including jazz, classical, funk, and beautiful melodies, this will be a night that you would regret missing!