Fusing the elements of chamber/film music, taonga puoro (traditional instruments of the Maori) and story-telling, "Legends of Rotorua"  is a work of great beauty and cultural reflection.  The first example of a true international collaboration in this genre, UK composer, Paul Lewis and master Taonga Puoro practitioner, Horomona Horo, were commissioned in 2009 to set two of the best loved Maori legends of the Te Arawa peoples to music.  Based on the texts of respected Rotorua historian, D M Stafford, "Hinemoa & Tutanakei", the great love story and "Ihenga & the Fairy People of Mt Ngongotaha" took on new musical life.  The work was premiered at the Rotorua Festival of the Arts in 2011 and later recorded at the Air-Edel studios in London in 2013 to be released on Atoll Records. 

Conceived as a work which would make the Maori legends and instruments accessible to both a concert going audience and the general public, Legends of Rotorua sets the two stories in a three tiered musical narrative.  The story-teller tells the stories, at times between musical interludes and at other times over the music; the taonga puoro tells the story using direct harmonic and melodic interaction with the chamber ensemble and in spaces left for solo musical narration; while the chamber ensemble, (string quartet, harp, flute & soprano/vocalise) tell the story in a way reminiscent of the conjuring, evocative quality of film music.  Approximately forty-five minutes in length, it can be performed as a stand alone work or with other works by Lewis or Horo or using material from the wealth of work that now exists for Taonga Puoro in a concert environment.

For more information visit: http://www.koruartists.com/legends-of-rotorua.html