Between | AWE 2026
Our second programme of AWE 2026, Between, closes our opening weekend in Wānaka. It is a programme that moves, between art forms, between artists, between perspectives, exploring what lies beneath the surface of music through the hidden structures and human connections that live there. Beneath the defined lines of Rippon Hall, the line of chorale that runs through AWE extends beyond music into visual art, architecture and design.
We open with Caroline Shaw’s Plan & Elevation, a string quartet that she composed to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington. While writing this work, Shaw simultaneously sketched out her ideas as a drawing and in doing so, gave the piece its name. Plan and elevation are two standard ways of representing architecture: the plan, a bird's eye view; the elevation, a side view. In Shaw’s own words, these perspectives also act as a metaphor for “one’s path in any endeavor — often the actual journey and results are quite different (and perhaps more elevated) than the original plan.”
From one artist’s two perspectives to the individual perspective of two artists! This year’s Composer in Residence Michael Norris debuts his AWE commission, a string trio, which he is composing in tandem with local sculptor, Ed Cruickshank. Together they are exploring how a single point of inspiration crosses between and over different lines, mediums, imaginations and hands. Ed's work often embeds ideas of communication and understanding directly into its surface: Braille, Morse code, messages that become legible only if you know where to look and how to read them. Ed and Michael will talk more about their collaboration, how it came about and how it evolved, at our free AWE+ event between Sunday’s two performances of Between.
We close with Schumann’s String Quartet Number 3. Better known during his lifetime as a critic than a composer, Schumann rather resentfully played (forgive the musical pun) second fiddle to his wife, Klara, a celebrated pianist. After touring with her, he returned home, immersed himself in the study of counterpoint for a month and in a single week produced three string quartets, of which this is the last. Throughout his work, Schumann returned to a number of recurring motifs, the most famous of which is simply called "Klara", a falling fifth. "Klara" opens this quartet: an expression of love through and beyond musical lines that has travelled across the centuries and the globe, remaining utterly poignant. The notes of counterpoint, like those that we hear a day earlier during Crossed, are vital and dependent upon one another, as two people in a relationship.