OK, so, to set the scene, it’s early afternoon on a random Friday. End of exam period, and I’m so tired, and my flatmate is working on her final essay. Like a tired hamster in a public enclosure, I curl up in a ball in my chair beside her and squint around the library suspiciously. That’s when my phone dings. Cadence Chung’s invited me to a rehearsal with soprano Sarah Mileham and pianist Ameli Lin. (!!!)

So I toodle down the stairs to the NZSM and sit in the corner of a practice room while they rehearse. Cadence has set five of my poems to a song cycle for soprano, mezzo-soprano and piano. Like, with musical transitions and everything. Motifs that carry through? I don’t know, I’m not a musician, but it sounded so considered and comprehensive that I nearly bawled my eyes out.

Most of the poems Cadence used had only been published in one place – like ‘My City’ and ‘What We Owe To Each Other’ on NZ Poetry Shelf – and from a couple of years ago. I still have no idea the time and effort they put into finding these poems and turning them into compositions. It is freakin’ amazeballs!

I sort of can’t describe the feeling of your own poems being performed to you? It’s like a big cloud floating into the room and zapping you in the head with lightning bolts made of your own thoughts. I hadn’t read most of the poems since I’d written them, which was in high school. So it felt like my sixteen-year-old self had broken into the rehearsal to give me a big hug. Yeah, I got teary! It was a gift.

Along with instrumentation based off Rebecca Hawkes’ Poem About (??), Cadence, Amelia and Sarah are rehearsing to perform six original songs. ‘Cud-Chewing Country’ is a concert of original compositions set to contemporary New Zealand poetry. The aim of the concert is to create a collaboration of multi-disciplinary art, or, a conversation between composers and poets. Along with Cadence, composers Kassandra Wang, Mallory Elmo and Wynton Newman are performing their works. Poets whose work is included are Janet Newman, Kate Camp, Loretta Riach, Max and Olive,
and Brent Kininmont.

To hint more of the programme, instrumentation includes Kassandra Wang’s unaccompanied SAT vocal quartet, Wynton Newman’s jazz quartet, and Mallory Elmo’s various combinations of mezzo- soprano, piano, violin, electric guitar, and a solo vocalizing cello. Pretty freakin’ rad??!?!?

The concert will take place at St Peter’s on Willis on the 8th of July, 2023. Wellington City Council Creative Communities is the sponsor. SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music will be recording the concert. I totally recommend going if you’re based in Te-Whanganui-A-Tara.

Pippi Jean