John Psathas: Composing with Nature

This year’s Composer in Residence, John Psathas, fluidly weaves a touch of nature into AWE 2025 with music that draws deeply from the world around us. John’s approach to composition blends diverse influences into his unique musical language, including jazz, rock, minimalism, and Greek folk traditions. Inspired by landscapes of both Aotearoa New Zealand and Greece, John effortlessly evokes the rhythms, patterns and structures of nature - whether the pulse of the waves, the rustle of leaves, or the sound of birdsong.

As one of New Zealand’s most prolific and successful composers, it is a special pleasure to be able to share his chamber music throughout AWE 2025. John's compositions also offer a gateway into this year’s theme: exploring how artists respond to nature, not only through imitation, but through feeling - listening, absorbing, and translating the environment into sound. John’s works thread throughout the festival, inviting audiences to reflect on the patterns and energies that shape both the world around us and the music we create within it.

Reflecting Nature through Music and Architecture

Music is not the only discipline shaped by the natural world: this year, we explore the intersection of music, nature, and architecture.  Architect Fred van Brandenburg paused his career to study Antoni Gaudi’s integration of organic forms and geometry. This sparked a new direction in his designs from traditional to sculptural, nature-inspired architecture. The extraordinary headquarters he designed for Marisfrolg in Shenzhen, China resembles a bird in flight and incorporates recycled materials, blending architecture with natural elements and sustainability. Influenced by natural shapes and human anatomy, van Brandenburg shapes his environments with an eye for proportion, symmetry, and the fluidity found in nature - much like a composer shapes their music.

A few centuries earlier, British painter William Hogarth explored the aesthetic appeal of a ‘serpentine (wavy) line’ in art and design, which in turn inspired a variety of artists and musicians. Van Brandenburg’s work reflects how natural forms influence both architecture and music, with the dynamic curves found in nature contributing to the balance, structure, and beauty in both disciplines. These ideas come together in Queenstown, where the seven movements of Beethoven’s Op. 131 unfold in perfect balance, much like the structures van Brandenburg creates in his designs. The performance explores the intricate relationship between musical form and architectural harmony.

We’re thrilled to welcome Fred van Brandenburg to this year’s festival, and look forward to exploring the threads connecting architecture, music and nature.