Photo credit: Gareth Watkins /
Welcome
Composer, conductor, author, speaker, educator and publisher Philip Norman has been entertaining New Zealand audiences for forty-five years. His output of over 250 compositions ranges from orchestral, chamber music and opera (A Christmas Carol) through secular and sacred choral and vocal works, to musicals with playwright Roger Hall (including Love Off the Shelf and Footrot Flats – still New Zealand’s best selling musical) and ballets for the Royal New Zealand Ballet such as the highly successful Peter Pan (toured New Zealand three times)
Philip holds a PhD in musicology and is the award-winning
author of Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music and the compiler and publisher of John Ritchie at Ninety: a festschrift. He was invested as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to music and music theatre in 2015. He was the recipient of the 2017/2018 Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship and is currently writing a history of composition in New Zealand.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Live streaming from 15 July 2021
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya, narrated by Raybon Kan.
Snake and Lizard, music by Philip Norman to the story by Joy Cowley with illustrations by Gavin Bishop, published by Gecko Press. Recorded as part of the NZSO Storytime series of livestreamed videos.
See also A Lion in the Meadow
Mahy Magic
30 July, 31 July, 1 August
Peter Walls, conductor
Opus Orchestra
Robert Tucker & Georgia Jamieson-Emms
Musical settings by Philip Norman of poems and stories by Margaret Mahy. Magic and sparkle for all ages.
A 21-chapter salute to a cultural icon. Winner of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2007 biography category, this book offers fascinating insights into the world of New Zealand music, literature and fine art through the eyes and ears of one of New Zealand’s most creative sons, ‘the father of New Zealand composition’, Douglas Lilburn.
Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music can be purchased for $40 (plus postage and packaging)
Please contact for further details