NZ HERALD

100 not out

12 Dec, 2018

By: Richard Betts

Christmas 1918: the War to End All Wars has just come to its bloody conclusion. If you've survived Ypres, the Somme or Gallipoli you still aren't safe; chances are the influenza pandemic is coming for you or someone you love.

In just two months, 9000 New Zealanders succumb; public gatherings are banned and entertainment halls are ordered to close. The Auckland Choral Society is among the organisations forced to cancel its seasonal festivities.

It's the first year since 1867 that the choir won't perform Handel's great oratorio Messiah. It's also the last year the choir fails to perform Messiah; 2018 marks 100 Handels in a row for the organisation now known simply as Auckland Choral.

The choir's music director, Uwe Grodd, who conducts Town Hall performances this month, is a relative newcomer to Auckland Choral's Messiahs. With two Christmas performances annually, this year he will complete just his 18th.

Many of the choir's members go back much further. Long-time Auckland Choral singer John Stevenson reckons his tally lies somewhere between 60 and 70. He grew up in a singing family; his father conducted the church choir and even now, aged 83, John's relationship with Messiah remains founded in his religious upbringing.

"My view is that Messiah has remained popular because it tells the greatest story ever told," he says. "It's part of people's religious life, it tells a story of Christian redemption from start to finish."

Stevenson talks fondly of past performances and says singing with professional soloists helps keep things exciting for the members of the choir, who are mostly part-timers. Tenor Simon O'Neill is the big star of this Messiah, though Handel is not a composer normally associated with the singer, who, these days, is more likely to be heard in weightier music.

"Simon started in youth choir," Grodd says. "He would have grown up singing Messiah. His voice has the capacity to fill the Town Hall but he's at an age where that voice is at its prime, so he can do anything with it. I'm really looking forward to that first [aria] Comfort Ye, when he opens his mouth and sings."

O'Neill is the standout name but Auckland Choral is doing a couple of other special things to mark 100 years.

Most notably, this will be a big Messiah. Early performances conducted by Handel in the 1740s and 50s featured around 20 choristers and a similar number of orchestral musicians. Grodd's orchestra, Pipers Sinfonia, will boast 50 players, which is large for a Baroque band, but he's really gone to town with the choir, cramming almost 250 singers into Auckland Town Hall.

There is precedent for such large forces; Grodd says that even in Handel's lifetime, Messiahgrew bigger and bigger. By the middle of the 19th century, things had got entirely out of hand. In 1859, a performance to mark the centenary of Handel's death comprised 460 players and 2765 singers.

Auckland Choral is going nowhere near that but Grodd has nonetheless needed to supplement his usual group with members of the University of Auckland Chamber Choir, Dunedin Civic Choir and Brisbane Chorale. In a nice touch, he's also invited alumni of Auckland Choral to return, on the understanding that they commit to seven rehearsals and a weekend workshop ahead of the concert.

Such extended rehearsal time is unusual. Soprano Anna Kofoed joined Auckland Choral as soon as she arrived from England in 1984 but her association with Messiah goes back to the 1960s, when she was a schoolgirl in Oxford. She remembers that when she sang in the Royal Choral Society in London, Messiah might only earn one or two rehearsals, if you were lucky.

"They did it every year and didn't think you needed a lot of rehearsals. If you'd never sung it before you were at a huge disadvantage."

Grodd, you sense, would not leave his singers at a disadvantage. For him, it's less about perfection than the search for transcendent moments or what his teacher, the great Sergiu Celibidache, called the "yes".

"Celibidache, used to ask: how many yesses are there in music and how many nos?" explains Grodd. "There are lots of nos: too flat, too sharp, too early, too late, too loud, too soft. Everything is no, no, no, no, no. And then there comes a yes. The yes is that moment when everything clicks, when everything is one." In Handel's words, it's the Hallelujah.

Fireworks with Uwe Grodd

23 Nov 2018

Uwe Grodd is one of New Zealand’s best-known musicians – not only here but internationally.

The German-born New Zealander is a flutist, conductor and prolific recording artist – particularly regarded for his recordings of 18th Century music and the rehabilitation of composers such as Ferdinand Ries, a Beethoven pupil and fine composer in his own right.

Uwe Grodd has won several international awards for his work in 18th century music, including a Cannes Classical Award, Recordings of the Month in Gramophone Magazine and an IRR Outstanding award from International Record Review.

He has a remarkable musical pedigree, having been influenced by Bach specialist Helmuth Rilling in Stuttgart, and studying with renowned composer and flutist Robert Aitken and legendary conductor Sergiu Celibidache.

Up until recently, Uwe Grodd was Professor of flute and conducting at Auckland University’s School of Music, but his position was disestablished in a restructure earlier this year.

Uwe Grodd is currently conductor of Auckland Choral, and also the founding Music Director of the Manukau City Symphony Orchestra.

That orchestra’s turned 25 this year, and on Saturday there’s a celebratory concert entitled “Fireworks”

By RNZ

Outrage and sadness as eminent flute Professor farewelled

26 Oct 2018

Past students of an eminent flute teacher are happy he has been awarded the title of Professor Emeritus, but say the recognition is too little, too late.

Prof Uwe Grodd, who has taught flute performance and conducting at the University of Auckland since 1984, confirmed to RNZ in June he was made redundant, as a result of a School of Music restructure process.

Though the 59-year-old's teaching days at the University are over, he challenged the decision, and the University Council voted on October 17 to award him the title of Professor Emeritus upon early retirement, from November 2.

The Vice-chancellor Prof Stuart McCutcheon wrote in the letter offering the honour to Prof Grodd that "The significant contribution you have made throughout your career with the University is greatly appreciated and recognised by the University in the bestowal of this award."

"It is an honour to accept this prestigious title on behalf of all my many fabulous students," Prof Grodd told Newshub.

However, Prof Grodd's past students and colleagues remain dissatisfied with - and skeptical of - the restructure process that cost the professor his job in the first place.

Clare Penny, an Auckland-based performer who recently completed her Masters of Music under Prof Grodd, said that while the Professor Emeritus title was "incredibly well-deserved," it "does nothing to offset the silencing of staff, students and other stakeholders’ opinions during the deeply unpopular and damaging "restructure' process."

"Nor does it address the total failure of the University to provide the public with any reason whatever for the disestablishment of his position," she added.

Newshub asked the University for comment on this claim and the others made in the story, but the Vice-chancellor responded only that the University does not comment on the situation of individual staff members and had no further comment for the story.

Ms Penny presented Prof Grodd with a bouquet of roses and lilies at his final flute class on 15 October, where seven alumni from around the world Skyped in to listen.

Oregon-based Abigail Sperling who completed her DMA (Doctor of Music Arts) under Prof Grodd in 2015, told Newshub it was a "major loss to the university and to New Zealand music" that he would no longer be teaching at the institution.

"I have witnessed some of the best performers and pedagogues in the world teach masterclasses and lessons and none of them have what you do or can offer what you can," she wrote in a tribute to her former teacher on Facebook.

"Your intimate knowledge of the flute, your rapport with students, and your laudable teaching skills are evidenced by the number and quality of people who have opted for your guidance and coaching over the years."

A student who completed her Bachelor of Music with Prof Grodd in June this year described her former teacher as "very patient, "amazingly kind and encouraging."

The 21-year-old said she had been planning to attend Auckland University specifically to study with Prof Grodd since she was 15.

She said she was "very upset" she would no longer be able to complete her Honours year under the professor as she had intended, and had subsequently changed her plans to study secondary teaching instead.

A senior School of Music staff member, wishing to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal by the University, wrote on Facebook that disestablishing Prof Grodd's position was a "dreadful decision," and an "unexplained mystery."

However, Liz Hirst, a former student of Prof Grodd believes that Head of School Assoc Prof Martin Rummel, who oversaw the restructuring along with the University's Vice-chancellor, bears some responsibility.

"That the University Council has recognised Professor Grodd’s service and abilities with an Emeritus title speaks in their favour," she said.

"I hope the Council will investigate fully the events leading up to the “financial” restructure at the now devastated School of Music, at which the current HOD [Head of Department] Martin Rummel is in no way representing his staff's interests."

Speaking to RNZ in September, assoc Prof Rummel maintains he was "caught up" in the restructure just as other staff were.

"Anyone who is in the process is caught up with it," he said.

"Again this is nobody’s business. [The restructure is] not subject to public discussion."

His response came less than three months after the Tertiary education Union accused the University of "silencing" music staff in a letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor.

University Communications Manager Lisa Finucane told RNZ the assertion was "untrue," on the grounds that the Vice-chancellor was only requesting that staff comply with consultation procedures they "previously agreed to in their employment agreements."

Students have also claimed they are not being listened to.

The president of the School of Music Students' Association Leo Jaffrey wrote in a submission made to the restructure process quoted on RNZ that "students have been told that their opinions on this subject will be actively disregarded.

“It is clearly tantamount to a systematic attempt to prevent dissenting student voices from providing any input," he stated.

Newshub contacted Assoc Prof Rummel for comment on the accusations twice but he did not respond by the deadline.

Newshub.

Áine Kelly-Costello was also a former flute student of Prof Grodd.