Salina Fisher, the youngest ever winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award collects her prize at the APRA Silver Scroll Awards 2016 Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
"Thank you for making it possible for me to follow my dreams."
At just twenty two years-old, Salina Fisher is the youngest ever winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award, New Zealand’s premier classical composition prize. Established in 1998, the SOUNZ Contemporary Award recognises outstanding compositional excellence, creativity and inspiration.
Salina's winning entry is 'Rainphase' an orchestral work, which captures her experience of the “beauty and chaos of Wellington rain”.
Salina is proving to be particularly adept at working with sonorities, evoking uncanny colours from orchestras and ensembles. Her most recent work 'Tōrino' (meaning ‘spiral’), for string quartet, is based on transcriptions of recordings of a pūtōrino, a Maori musical instrument that can function both as a ‘trumpet' and ‘flute'.
Since she started composing at the age of 7, Salina has drawn inspiration from the natural world, her Japanese heritage and Maori culture. You can’t help wondering what she will draw on next.
'SOUNZ Contemporary Award Winner Salina Fisher's 'Rainphase' interpreted by Jeff Boyle (guitar), Julia Deans (guitar) and Chris O'Connor (drums) at APRA Silver Scrolls 2016. Photo: RNZ
