Our 2021 successes
This might be a controversial thing to say, given the last five months, but 2021 wasn't all bad. In fact, the first half of the year was pretty amazing. We started off with a hiss and a roar, throwing open the doors of our three custom-built spaces to a brand new Ockham Collective line-up in February.
Despite - and in some cases because of - the disruptions from August onwards, our OC21 creatives achieved some amazing things. Here are some that we're most proud of:
David Ward wrote and played the banjo pieces for the soundtrack of Jane Campion's acclaimed movie The Power of the Dog;
Hanna Wiskari hosted Scandinavian Tune Workshops and Transglobal Music Sessions at our Modal and Hypatia precincts;
Jessie Booth toured the country playing guitar with Elemeno P;
Kim Halliday toured with Gitbox Rebellion (until the August outbreak saw the band 'stranded' in beautiful Rakiura/Stewart Island) and is preparing to play with Whirimako Black at WOMAD in March;
Kingsley Spargo took charge of sound and music design for two Auckland Theatre Company productions, and released an album as part of electronic-acoustic duo Alargo;
Lana Herewini was awarded a scholarship to undertake a Masters of Māori Leadership;
Lucie Blaževská hosted two Born To Create workshops and then published a magazine of the same name celebrating creative women;
Selina Tusitala Marsh was nominated for a NZ children's book award for Mophead Tu: The Queen's Poem and utilised our Modal precinct to put together her gruelling application for the role of Professor at Auckland University (which we're delighted to say was successful!);
Sonia Wilson performed under a cornucopia of guises (Sonia & Nigel, Gitbox Rebellion, Bonjour Madame, Unsung Heroes and Four Strings Sing - the later being an offshoot of her popular Sunday ukulele classes) and spent lockdown recording an album and writing a book;
Vanessa Kelly joined us partway through the year and is returning in 2022 to continue to offer vocal health training and industry mentoring.
Another highlight has been the 'Ockham Collective Presents...' salon series that was held at the wonderful Freida Margolis wine bar in Grey Lynn. If you attended any of these intimate gigs, you'll know how truly special these nights of exceptional musicianship were. Sadly we were only able to stage five out of the planned 10 shows but each of them was extraordinary, kicking off with Reb Fountain in March followed by Mireya Ramos, Ha The Unclear, Gitbox Rebellion and Carniverous Plant Society.
Behind the scenes, we used lockdown to recruit and interview (via Zoom, naturally) for the Ockham Collective 2022 - and what a group it's promising to be! We're looking forward to announcing the new members in February, along with details of an exciting new space at our disposal.
Until then, from all of us here at the Ockham Collective, have a wonderful new year!
