Posted November 3, 2026
Please join us on Sunday for a 40-minute music and poetry programme. Featuring two original compositions by composers Antonia Barnett-McIntosh (Tāmaki Makaurau) and Salina Fisher (Te Whanganui- a-Tara), written in response to poems by Rachel O’Neill.
The programme will include the New Zealand premiere of a piece by Salina Fisher ‘becoming residue’. Composed for violin and soprano, the piece will be performed by accomplished musicians and University of Otago staff Tessa Romano (soprano) and Tessa Petersen (violin).
Salina Fisher wrote this commission in 2025 for Duo della Luna and it has been performed internationally in the US and Italy over the last year. A haunting and poignant piece, the work is written to words/a poem from Rachel O’Neill’s third book ‘Symphony of Queer Errands’ (Tender Press, 2025).
The second original composition by Antonia Barnett-McIntosh will be performed in collaboration with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Principal Flute, Bridget Douglas, and Rachel O’Neill. Barnett-McIntosh works collaboratively to compose scores with musicians and writers and their original piece will emerge from a two multi-day workshop wānanga held together during October and November 2026.
The event aims to be a rich and energising offering to Ōtepoti art lovers, bringing together two of the most significant contemporary classical composers working in Aotearoa today with some of the most accomplished musicians responding the poetry of this years Robert Burns Fellow Rachel O’Neill.
All Welcome.