Tristan Carter

Violinist, Violaist, Composer

Tristan Carter completed a Bachelor of Music at Victoria University, majoring in Performance Violin and Composition, followed by an Honours year in Composition, where he gained first class Honours. Tristan will be studying towards an Masters in Composition during 2009.

Recent projects include: ‘Tears of Green’ involving collaboration with Maori Taonga Puoru instrumentalists James Webster and Horomona Horo in the 2007 Asia Pacific Festival, and ‘New World’, for solo percussion and tape, juxtaposing supermarket sounds with peace protests on the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, performed by Arnold Marinissen. His first involvement in writing for theatre was last August when he wrote and performed in the music for a contemporary production of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ at Toi Whakaari- the New Zealand Drama School. He was also awarded the David Farquhar Award for Composition earlier in the year, which involved a commission to write 'Murmur' for the Tasman String Quartet, which was performed in a tour of Nelson, Blenheim, Wanganui and Wellington. That same piece won the New Zealand School of Music Composition Competition in September, and he was awarded the Wellington City Council Composition Award in November.

Current projects include writing an orchestral piece for children’s orchestra commissioned by the Caprice Arts Trust to be performed by the Raroa Music Centre Orchestra in June 2009, and collaborating in the band Ningizzida with the theatre company Babyshads, for a November 2008 production that deals with surrealistic themes of death and housewifery.