Muriwai
Thurs 24 Oct 7.30pm
Award-winning musicians and collaborators Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu) and Bob Bickerton have joined forces to create Muriwai. The name refers to a confluence of two rivers, and their music is a convergence of Māori and Celtic musical traditions through Celtic harp, vocals, and taonga puoro.
Long-time collaborators, the pair have now developed a major work which journeys through time and place starting with a Kāi Tahu creation story relating to water, through to the arrival of people in Te Waipounamu the South Island, our impact on the environment, and imagined consequences of our actions.
Ariana is a composer and performer of waiata in te reo Māori and English, as well as being an exponent of taonga puoro. She received the Jillian Friedlander Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Laureate Award in 2010 from the New Zealand Arts Foundation.
Bob Bickerton, a performer of both traditional Irish music and taonga puoro, has recorded with Richard Nunns, Aroha Yates-Smith and many others. In 2015, he was appointed as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to music.
Muriwai is presented by the Waimakariri Community Arts Council in partnership with Chamber Music New Zealand.