Chris Gendall

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Christopher Thomas Gendall (born 1980) is a New Zealand composer and lecturer in composition at the University of Auckland.

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Early life and education

Born in 1980 in Hamilton Gendall studied composition at Victoria University in Wellington. [1] [2] Gendall studied under Roberto Sierra and Steven Stucky at Cornell University and was awarded his PhD in 2010 with his thesis entitled New Musical Rhythm: Toward a Reductive Analytical Method for Music since 1900. [3] [2]

Career

In 2009 Gendall, along with Gillian Whitehead, Ross Harris, John Psathas and Eve de Castro-Robinson, was one of the composers chosen by SOUNZ (Centre for New Zealand Music) to compose for SOUNZtender an online auction in which anyone could put up a tender for a composer's work. [4] [5] Gendall's composition Suite for String Orchestra was written while he was Composer in Residence at the Banff Centre in Alberta. [6]

In 2010 he was appointed as the Creative New Zealand/Jack C Richards Composer in Residence at the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University. [7] [8] The Vector Wellington Orchestra (now Orchestra Wellington) appointed Gendall as their Composer in Residence for 2011. [7] [9] His Triple Concerto for the orchesta and the NZTrio was performed in 2012. [10]

Gendall was Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago in 2016 and 2017. [11] [12] [13] During the residency he composed Talking Earth for brass band. [14]

In 2020 on the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth he received a commission from the Auckland Philharmonia and composed Disquiet for piano trio based on Beethoven's piano trio Op. 70 no. 2. [15] [16]

Gendall has participated in a number of international festivals and conferences including the Wellesley Composers’ Conference, the Aspen Music Festival, the Britten-Pears Contemporary Composition programme, the Royaumont Voix Nouvelles Composition Course, and the Aldeburgh Festival and his works have been performed by orchestras and ensembles in New Zealand and elsewhere. [2] [11]

Gendall has also worked for RNZ as an assistant producer for the Upbeat programme. [7] In 2018 he was president of the Composers Association of New Zealand. [17] He has also been a mentor for the NZSO National Youth Orchestra Composer in Residence in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2024, and for the NZSO Todd Young Composer Award in 2017. [18]

Awards and honours

Gendall won two awards in 2005 and 2006: a New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Todd Young Composer Award and an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award. [7]

In 2008 he won the SOUNZ Contemporary Award at the APRA Awards for Wax Lyrical. [11]

Selected works

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References

  1. ↑ "Gendall, Chris, 1980-". tiaki.natlib.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 "Chris Gendall - SOUNZ". sounz.org.nz. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  3. ↑ Gendall, Christopher Thomas (2010). New Musical Rhythm: Toward a Reductive Analytical Method for Music since 1900. PhD Thesis. Cornell University.
  4. ↑ Biss, Rod (16 May 2009). "Sonata for you". New Zealand Listener: 47.
  5. ↑ "SOUNZtender: the Concert - SOUNZ". sounz.org.nz. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  6. ↑ "Suite for String Quartet - SOUNZ". sounz.org.nz. Archived from the original on 23 May 2024. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Chris Gendall – 2011 Vector Wellington Orchestra Composer in Residence". New Zealand Opera News: 19. December 2011.
  8. ↑ "Chris Gendall". RNZ . 17 March 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  9. ↑ "Chris Gendall named Wellington orchestra's composer in residence". Scoop. 16 September 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  10. ↑ "Triple Concerto - SOUNZ". sounz.org.nz. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 "Chris GENDALL: Wax Lyrical". RNZ . 30 October 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  12. ↑ "Art fellows announced". Otago Daily Times. 14 September 2016. Archived from the original on 29 March 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  13. ↑ Fox, Rebecca (26 January 2017). "Leaving notes for others". Otago Daily Times. Archived from the original on 16 February 2024. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  14. ↑ "Talking Earth - SOUNZ". sounz.org.nz. Archived from the original on 18 May 2024. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  15. ↑ "Celebrating the symphonies that changed the world". Express: 12. March 2020 – via NDHA.
  16. ↑ "Disquiet - SOUNZ". sounz.org.nz. Archived from the original on 22 May 2024. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  17. ↑ "Music Feature: Chris Gendall, NZ Composers Association". RNZ . 13 March 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  18. ↑ "Chris Gendall". profiles.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
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