Legends Of Rotorua
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LEGENDS OF ROTORUA is a setting of two Maori Legends: "Hinemoa and Tutanekai" and "Ihenga and the Fairy Folk of Mount Ngongataha", the result of a commission funded by RECT of Rotorua for a work blending European and Maori musical traditions. It has been performed four times at the Rotorua Museum, including in the Rotorua Festival of Arts, 2011. The text is extracted from the writings of historian Donald Stafford, in particular his "History of the Arawa People", and the work is scored for Maori story-teller, soprano, flute, harp, string quartet and improvised Taonga Puoro, (native Maori instruments.)
Here is a short film of the recording of Legends of Rotorua at Air-Edel Studio, London, in June 2013, with Taonga Puoro virtuoso Horomona Horo, narrator Joshua Rogers, soprano Sharon Elizabeth and chamber ensemble directed by Paul Lewis. The recording was released in September 2016 on Atoll Records (NZ) and is sold through Marbecks in Auckland.
