Musician, artist win awards

Press, 21 August 1979, Page 23

Musician, artist win awards

I The 1979 Air New Zea-land-Queen Elizabeth II , Arts Council artists’ travel grants have gone to an artist, Peter Siddell, and , a comoser-arranger-musi-cal director, Bernie Allen. Peter Siddell intends to visit Australia to study .contemporary art there, to • see paintings in public collections, and to “experience” Australian land- • scape and architectural 'styles. He hopes to gain a i greater understanding of painters whose work is known to him only .through reproductions and > to return to New Zealand with a fresh outlook on the aspects of his own country. Bernie Allen will visit the United States to see writing and recording techniques in television and film studios. He will also spend some time at the University of Southern California, which is the . major American university engaged in teaching film and television music tech- . piques. . Peter Siddell began painting in 1965 at the age of 30, and first exhibited his work in 1972. Since 1973. he has painted He has had six one-man exhibitions, participated in various group shows, and was a finalist in the Benson and Hedges Art Award in 1974, 1976, and 1973. His work is represented in private and public colledtions, including the Auckland City Art Gallery, the Dunedin Public Art Galiery, the Rotorua City Art Gallery, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. . He says of his work: •My paintings are realist jn style but are not of particular places. They are compiled in the studio from sketches I have made over a number of years and include things remembered and imagined.”

' Mr Siddell lives in Auckland with his wife, the artist Sylvia Siddell, and his two daughters. Bernie Allen was bom jn 1937 at Muriwai Beach. He plays the piano, clarinet, flute, and saxophone, and during the 1950 s played in various brass bands, radio dance bands, and the Neophonic Orchestra. He also led, arranged, and composed for many jazz groups and wrote music for stage shows and university reviews. He composed “Encounters” for the New Zealand Ballet and for

television, and conducted and arranged popular music concerts for the Symphonia of Auckland. Since he became a musical director for television in 1962 he has been responsible for the music direction of about 650 light entertainment shows, has composed station and programme themes, and title and background music for drama productions. He also composes and directs commercials and advertising jingles. He served for some years on the executive of the Musicians Union, and is at present on the music committee of the Australasian Performing Right Association. He won the Apra Silver Scroll award for the music for “Hunter’s Gold” in 1978.