Photo: Stephen Fuller, Di Fuller www.stephenfuller.co.nz
Composer Clare Cowan has spent the best part of 2020 recording her score for the ballet Hansel and Gretel with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra into a deluxe double CD with accompanying story booklet.
She wrote the score for the Royal NZ Ballet production last year, the first woman in the country ever to write a full-length ballet.
The score calls for an orchestra of 50, including saxophone, keyboards and a percussion section containing pots and pans, musical bones, and bicycle horn.
Claire used crowd funding to raise the money for the project, which was recorded at Stella Maris Chapel in Seatoun, Wellington, in several stages due to various COVID alerts.
Claire Cowan spoke with Eva Radich about finishing the CD after so many delays.
