Grey Ghost
Composer – Miriama Young
Pianist – Aura Go
Audio Engineer – Haig Burnell
Filmed & Edited – Agatha Yim
Grey Ghost is a meditation in piano and electronics, drawing on the ancient song of the once-prolific South Island Kōkako - The 'Grey Ghost' - of New Zealand. It was a real joy working on this with Aura Go and Miriama Young, and I’m very chuffed with how it all turned out.
The performance was in the Hanson Dyer Hall, Ian Potter Southbank Centre, and the lighting we employed were based on images found of deep forests in New Zealand. The resulting lighting scheme had a lot of blues and greens to evoke a lush green forest under cool moonlight. Additional warmth was added as a fill on Aura to provide contrast to the blue.
I learned from Miriama that this piece had evolved since its premiere in 2017, and coupled with this exquisite performance by Aura, I’m really pleased that I was there to capture this organic work at this particular point of its evolution. If you’re interested in finding out Miriama and her piece, you can do so here.
And don’t forget to check out Aura’s website to see when she’s next playing!
Inspiration for the lighting (images of deep forests of New Zealand)
