Musical journey through centuries

Press, 20 July 1988, Page 19

Musical journey through centuries

Some South Island schoolchildren will take a musical journey through five centuries with two touring musicians in the next three weeks.

Robert and Andrea Oliver are a husband-and-wife team of professional musicians who are visiting the southern half of the South Island during the winter term.

They are full-time freelance musicians, and will present concerts in intermediate and secondary schools. They demonstrate and play a wide selection of instruments, performing music written from medieval times to the present day.

Included among their 18 instruments are keyboard (a small harpsichord), strings (viols and rebec) and woodwind (flutes), recorders and oboes.

The Olivers are specialists in music from earlier times. They play music from the time of Robin Hood, Guy Fawkes and Captain Cook, on instruments appropriate to each

period. The music spans 600 years of history, from the Middle Ages to the time of Captain Cook’s exploration of the Pacific.

They are supported by a grant from the ANZ Bank, which has also produced a resource booklet for every member of the school audiences.

This is the Olivers’ second tour this year. In April they toured to Nelson, Marlborough and Westland. In September they will give concerts in their home town, Wellington, and in Wanganui, Horowhenua and Taranaki. They will play to more than 10,000 pupils at more than 40 schools. In 1987, they performed to 45 schools and 12,000 children.

The concerts last for about 50 minutes and time is spent talking to members of the audience, many of whom try some of the instruments. At intermediate schools the concerts last 30 minutes, and the workshop afterwards, during which a smaller group play music of the period on their own

instruments, lasts for an hour and a half.

They are both New Zealanders, and have toured extensively throughout New Zealand. However, they have each had a lot of experience outside New Zealand as well. They were both members of the Ensemble Dufay, a five-member group specialising in Renaissance music, which toured twice for the Music Federation and gave a successful tour to Europe. Robert is a regular visitor to Australia, where he teaches and performs on the bass viol. Andrea is principal oboe in the Wellington Regional Orchestra. Robert was awarded the Q.S.M. in the New Year’s Honours List 1988 in recognition of his work in early music. The Olivers’ tour began at Methven on Monday and will include Timaru, Temuka, Dunedin, Invercargill, Central Otago, Oamaru, and Christchurch.

They will play a public concert at the Great Hall in the Christchurch Arts Centre at 1.10 p.m. on August 5 to end the tour.