John Elmsly

John Elmsly studied at Victoria University (Wellington) then on a Belgian Postgraduate Scholarship in Brussels and Liège. Introduced to electroacoustic composition by Douglas Lilburn, continuing at IPEM (Gent) with Lucien Goethals. Developed and codirected studios at University of Auckland from 1984 to 2014; electroacoustic works produced here included Triptych with trumpet, Gestauqua with brass quintet, and In Memoriam Rainbow Warrior. StilldreamK.. with baroque flute performed at The Tuning of the World in Banff (Banff, 1993). Sabbatical residences at Simon Fraser University explored Barry Truax’s POD system used in Masked Rituals, the Voices in the Air cycle (represented on CD by ‘Soft Dawn over Whispering Island’ and ‘The Voice of Experience’ with piano) and Drift with viola. Recent electroacoustic works continued exploring granular and multi-channel tools. Working within John Coulter’s SoundDome was pure delight: in all composition my goal has been to create otherness, magic within a lifespace, for which this is a powerful tool.