John Rimmer — New Zealand
John Rimmer's international profile as a composer has been developing ever since his Symphony(1968) was performed in Carnegie Hall, New York in 1970.
John Rimmer has done more than perhaps any other twentieth century New Zealand composer to reveal to us music as an exploration of the subtlety, the theatre, the colour and excitement of sound. Music in New Zealand
Perhaps his most internationally performed work is the set of piano pieces For the Kokako which has been played in far away countries such as Morocco, Paraguay, Norway and Singapore.
International New Zealand Artists represents John Rimmer.
www.inza.co.nz/JR.shtml
email:jamie@inza.co.nz
Reviews — John Rimmer
The third and fourth stars of the evening were John Rimmer and Edward Allen, the composer and soloist responsible for Hidden Treasures for horn and orchestra, the latest of the NZSO's ongoing commissions.
This versatile work could be read as a postmodernist treasure hunt for famous horn themes but it was more rewarding to savour Rimmer's textural skill, laying an almost Straussian weave around his poised soloist. William Dart, NZ Herald, 2006
John Rimmer's At the Appointed Time brought back other memories of the heady 70's when our composers were discovering the sheer joy of exploring new and vibrant soundworlds. Rimmer deals out wild orchestral rushes, bevies of bells and vibes, velvety blankets of Penderecki chords and in a superb performance crisply marshelled by James Judd, every glint of colour pierced through. William Dart, NZ Herald, 2005
John Rimmer's Ancestral Voices provides a very satisfying sonic journey. It's one of the prettiestpieces I've heard from this master of electro-acoustic music. There's something really sensual about the sounds in this work. There are wonderfully liquid and resonant sounds to be heard and, when single unmodified notes of Rimmer's instrumental sources appear from behind the screen of electronically modified sound, the result is both surprising and gratifying.Warren Burt, Music in New Zealand, 2002
CDs featuring John Rimmer's work
Fanfares for a new millennium
Auckland Philharmonia
Includes John Rimmer's Vulcan.Listen to excerpts and purchase from opusCDs.com
Points in a Changing Circle
Grant Cooper / Concrd Brass
Includes John Rimmer's Sonata a 5 for Brass Quintet and
Seaswell for trumpet an electronic sounds.Listen to excerpts and purchase from opusCDs.com
New Zealand Sonic Art Vol. II
Dedicated to the memory of Douglas Lilburn, this new collection of works by established and emerging composers explores the creative potential of a medium that, in Lilburn's words, "allows imagination to make use of all the sounds that are part of our listening human experience."
Includes John Rimmer's Ancestral Voices.Purchase from SOUNZ.org.nz
10 other recordings featuring John Rimmer can be purchased at SOUNZ
Biography — John Rimmer
John Rimmer was born in Auckland in 1939 and studied Composition with Ronald Tremain at the University of Auckland. In 1967 he was awarded a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship and studied at the University of Toronto with John Weinzweig and Gustav Ciamaga. He returned to New Zealand in 1969 and taught at the North Shore Teachers College before being appointed in 1974 to the staff of the School of Music at the University of Auckland where he taught for the next 25 years. In 1972 he was the Mozart Fellow (Composer-in-Residence) at the University of Otago. John Rimmer retired from his position at the University of Auckland in 1999 in order to devote his full attention to composing.
- 2002 and 2003 composer-in-residence with the Auckland Philharmonia,
- 2004 composer-in-residence with Dalewool Auckland Brass,
- 2006 composer-in-residence with the Manukau City Symphony Orchestra.
John Rimmer plays the horn and is the founder of the Karlheinz Company, an ensemble for new music at the University of Auckland.
Compositions have received critical acclaim internationally
John Rimmer's compositions use a wide variety of musical forces; instrumental, orchestral and choral. About a quarter of his works employ electroacoustic resources and many works are published and recorded.
As a composer, John Rimmer's international profile has been developing ever since his Symphony(1968) was performed in Carnegie Hall, New York in 1970.
Perhaps his most internationally performed work is the set of piano pieces For the Kokako which has been played in far away countries such as Morocco, Paraguay, Norway and Singapore.
In more recent times his computer-generated works have received critical acclaim and have been presented at international festivals in France, Canada and Greece.
He has received honourable mentions for his works in competitions at the prestigious electroacoustic music festival held in Bourges, France and also at the Newcomp competition in Massachusetts.
- 2003 the Philip Neill prize awarded by the University of Otago for his string quartet Bowed Insights.
- 1989: Symphony: The Feeling of Sound was commissioned and performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and subsequently recorded in the orchestra's CD series of New Zealand composers.
- 1986: his computer generated work Fleeting Images received the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music prize at Bourges.
- 1983: his De Aestibus Rerum ('on the ebb and flow of things') received first prize in the International Horn Competition held in the United States.
- 1977 he was awarded an APRA Silver Scroll for The Ring of Fire.
This work was one of the first commissions given by the Music Federation of New Zealand and was composed for the London Sinfonietta's visit to New Zealand in 1976. - 1971: he won the Philip Neill prize awarded by the University of Otago for his Composition 2 for Wind Quintet and Electronic Sounds
John's has been honoured within New Zealand
- 1997 the Lilburn Trust award for services to New Zealand music,
- 1995 awarded a personal professorial chair at the University of Auckland,
- 1994 received the KBB citation of the Composers Association of New Zealand for services to New Zealand music.
