New Zealand chamber musicians have taken the Anzac values to the world stage at the inaugural London edition of At The World’s Edge Festival.
The festival was founded by Benjamin Baker and Justine Cormack in Central Otago in 2021 – aiming to connect New Zealand and international artists and showcase their music to a wider audience.
Two shows were held in central London this week in the lead up to New Zealand and Australia’s national Anzac Day when the sacrifices of men and women in war, other conflicts and peacekeeping efforts are remembered.
“It was one of those things. Until you suggest an idea you're never sure how wide an awareness something like Anzac has but… it’s been wonderful to see actually how Anzac is something that is very much known [in London]," artistic director Baker told 1News. "I think what we're seeing in the really enthusiastic response to the festival is people are really interested and really keen to come and engage with it in in different ways."
Courage, sacrifice, service, mateship, remembrance and endurance were themes explored through classical music in intimate London settings.
“The words and values and attributes that New Zealanders and Aussies became known for from nearly 120 years ago and just celebrate those values through music and get people thinking about New Zealand and what makes us different," Baker said.
Kiwi soldier with a violin
At The World’s Edge commissioned Sebastian Black to compose a song based on the experience of Alexander Aitken, a Dunedin-born soldier who fought in WWI before being injured in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Aitken carried a violin with him to play in the trenches, providing solace for himself and fellow soldiers. His unit helped him to conceal it as a prohibited item.
Aitken thought it was lost when he was injured, but it was brought back to New Zealand by members of his unit who looked after it during war. He donated the violin to his former school Otago Boys’ High School.
After graduating from Otago University after the war, Aitken studied at University of Edinburgh, where he stayed on working in the maths department until retirement. He was regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest mathematicians.
In WWII, he was involved in codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park in England.
Black spent many hours researching Aitken’s experience and read his 1963 book Gallipoli To The Somme. What Aitken endured in the war affected him for the rest of his life.
“I went to visit the Imperial War Museum here in London which is kind of overwhelming in the amount of source material it's got and stories that you can get stuck into.
“You can begin – it's impossible to [fully] – but you can begin to imagine what the experiences of being a soldier were in the trenches and these kinds of things,” he said.
Black said he then "took a step back", thought about what he had learned and also considered the conflicts occurring in the world today.
"Throughout all of that time, creative ideas are beginning to spark in my mind about how I might use music to tell these stories."
After brainstorming, he took an Edwardian hymn about collective identity and reworked it as a solo violin piece that reflected Aitken's journey. "Once it clicked, it kind of wrote itself quite fast."
Further changes came in collaboration with Baker, who performed the piece for the concert.
Black was born in the UK, but his father was from Invercargill and he has many family members who still live in the South Island.
Wellingtonian cellist Jack Moyer also performed a piece in the festival.
Moyer first spent time in London while on a scholarship through At The World's Edge Festival in 2023.
"One of the most amazing parts of this festival is its ongoing support so it wasn't just a two month scholarship where you got this opportunity to experience a big city and then 'good luck,' it's been a constant support and mentorship," he said.
The experiences gained through the scholarship helped Moyer secure his next move, studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with a teacher he connected with in 2023.
He first heard his friend's brother playing the cello and immediately decided he wanted to learn to play it instead of the guitar lessons he was about to begin as a child.
Moyer grew up in a musical family, with parents who remember him conducting music on his windowsill as a young child.
"I really was very lucky to be able to make the most of all the musicians and the incredible musicians that are in New Zealand and I had such an amazing foundation there and so many opportunities that you just can't really get in a really big city so I was super grateful for that. But now there's just like, the scale has kind of exploded. It's amazing."
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