Taonga pūoro specialist Rob Thorne is Victoria University of Wellington’s Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music‘s next Creative NZ/Jack C. Richards Composer-in-Residence.
Palmerston North musician Rob Thorne has 25 years experience in bands and solo performance, predominantly within alternative rock, free noise, experimental, and improvisational sound art.
His work since 2001 with traditional Māori musical instruments has seen him recently complete a Master of Arts in Social Anthropology and in 2014 he published the album ‘Whāia te Māramatanga’ with Rattle Records, a solo album of original taonga pūoro compositions. Recently he collaborated with NZSM composition graduate Salina Fisher, resulting in Fisher’s Tōrino – echoes on pūtōrino improvisations by Rob Thorne for the New Zealand String Quartet.
He will move to Wellington in July 2017 to take up residence in the former Thorndon home of celebrated New Zealand composer the late Douglas Lilburn. He will be NZSM’s fourteenth composer-in-residence.
In his time at NZSM, Thorne will work on collaborative and solo works, all involving taonga pūoro.
