2009 Concert Series
Chamber Music for Summer
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Peter Scholes pursues the dual career of performing (both as a conductor and a clarinettist), and composing.
He was Founder and is currently Musical Director of the Auckland Chamber Orchestra. He studied conducting with Juan Matteucci and has conducted all the professional New Zealand Orchestras as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Symphony Orchestra.
He was composer and conductor for the NZ feature films “Desperate Remedies” by Peter Wells and Stuart Main and the short film “Hinekaro goes on a Picnic and Blows Up Another Obelisk” by Christine Parker based on the story by Keri Hulme. He also conducted the soundtrack to “Heavenly Creatures”. Film scores also include “Memory and Desire” by Niki Caro with the NZSO and “Fifty Ways of Saying Fabulous” by Stuart Main.
He has had works commissioned by the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Saint Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, CadeNZa, Chamber Music New Zealand, the Auckland Wind Quintet, Patrick Power, Gareth Farr, Amanda Hollins and Richard Mapp and for Radio New Zealand drama productions. His composition “Islands II” represented New Zealand in the 1993 UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers.
Recent compositions include “The Clown’s Birthday” to a story by Margaret Mahy and “The Tale of the Birdcatcher”, a chamber opera. He also collaborated with Witi Ihimaera on “Symphonic Legends”.
His specialist instrument is the clarinet which he studied with George Hopkins, Alan Hacker and Thea King and with Ken Wilson at the Auckland Conservatorium, now the University of Auckland School of Music. His interpretations received international acclaim when he was prize winner in the 1987 International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition held in Rotterdam.