Gillian Whitehead - Tūmanako - Journey through an unknown landscape

Our Resound film coverage of works programmed in honour of 2018’s Suffrage 125 celebrations shifts from Wellington’s Hannah Playhouse to the Auckland Town Hall, where the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra presented a concert titled ‘A Woman’s Place’, which included music by composing wahine Gillian Whitehead, Claire Cowan and Salina Fisher.

Gillian Whitehead’s work for piano, ‘Tūmanako: Journey through an unknown landscape’, was commissioned by Helen Kominik for her great-grandchildren, Kate Fraser and Tom Fraser, through SOUNZtender, a project of SOUNZ in 2010. The premiere, by Diedre Irons, can be seen as a pre-Resound film on the SOUNZ website (https://www.sounz.org.nz/resources/12.... It is performed here by pianist Modi Deng, who had just performed Clara Schumann’s ‘Piano Concerto’ with the orchestra.

Audio recorded by RNZ Concert.
Film funded by NZ On Air.