About Me

(Photo: Renee Liang)

My name is Robbie Ellis – I am a composer, improviser and broadcaster. Born on Auckland’s sunny North Shore, I now live in Dunedin, New Zealand. Prior to that, I lived in Wellington for four years.

Composer

I write music in a genre that can’t figure out its own name. Some call it “contemporary classical”, some call it “new music”, “acoustic music”, “concert music”, “art music”, “serious music”, “dots on paper”, “slounge music”… I prefer to call it “it music”. (You know it when you hear ‘it’.)

It’s writing for orchestras, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, voice, other bits and pieces etc etc. Mostly acoustic instruments, mostly notated.

My compositions are represented by SOUNZ, The Centre for New Zealand Music. You can browse, preview and buy sheet music from them. Here’s my profile, which has a more sensible composer bio than this. Some of my pieces have recordings on Soundcloud – here’s my page.

I’m a member of the Composers Association of New Zealand (CANZ) and the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), and a  graduate of the University of Auckland School of Music (BA/BMus 2003-2006; BMus(Hons) 1st Class 2007).

I am the 2012 University of Otago Mozart Fellow in Composition, based in Dunedin. I am also the 2012 Auckland Youth Orchestra Composer-in-Residence.

Songwriter

All of the above sounds pretty classical-based. That said, I do write songs and such. You know, singable, accessible melodies with words attached. Sometime they’ve been for bands I’ve been in, often they’ve been songs for stand-up comedy. Sometimes they’re parodies of other songs. They’re fun.

One thing I organise is Song Sale – monthly gigs in Dunedin where any audience member can commission a song on a chosen topic/theme/title/genre etc. One of a group of songwriter-performers goes out back, writes the song, performs it that night. It’s a great way to get writing with few reservations and preconceptions.

It’s not unheard of to improvise songs on the spot, but this format allows the creators to have a bit more time to refine things. Did someone say “improvise”? Well that segues nicely to the next h2 header…

Improviser

I’m a specialist in music for improv theatre. If that means nothing, the two best-known names are Theatresports™ and Whose Line Is It Anyway?, however those two formats are but a small range of what is possible in improv.

The companies I’ve worked with the most are ConArtists (Auckland), The Improvisors (Wellington) and Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT). Now I live in Dunedin, I’m occasionally working with Improsaurus too. As a musician, I’ve naturally performed a lot of full-length improvised musicals: highlights have been multiple seasons of Austen Found: The Undiscovered Musicals of Jane Austen; tours of Improv: The Musical around New Zealand; and winning Best Comedy at the 2009 New Zealand Fringe Festival Awards for Improv: The Secondary School Musical.

Most of the time I’m the only musician, working with a larger number of actors and a lighting operator. When I’m the only muso, I use a two-keyboard setup. When there are other musicians, you can add a lot more instruments: I’ve incorporated everything from the conventional (guitar, egg shaker) to the moderately unconventional (trumpet, saxophone, kazoo) to the downright “What on earth are they doing in the theatre that day?” (xylophone, didjeridu).

I’ve performed every year at the New Zealand Improv Festival since its inception; at the 2009 Impro Melbourne Hallowe’en Classic and the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival; and in 2007 I did gigs with Colin Mochrie for the 20th anniversary of Theatresports in Auckland. I’ve also done two seasons of Improv FM which have been broadcast on Radio New Zealand National, which segues nicely, once again, to the next h2 header…

Broadcaster

From February 2008 to January 2012 I worked at Radio New Zealand Concert in Wellington as a producer and presenter. I was the series producer for The Critic’s Chair, the weekly review of recently released recordings; the producer of Podcast Classics, a monthly series of free downloads; and I worked as Kenneth Young’s producer for Resound, a project to bring recordings out of Radio New Zealand Concert’s archive and put them on the web for all to hear.

I regularly presented Sound Lounge, and I worked for Upbeat as a feature-maker, fill-in producer and fill-in presenter. I’ve also presented Composer of the Week, Music Alive and Young New Zealand; and in August 2011 I completed a major three-part documentary series called Making Maestros, focusing on the inaugural NZSO Conductor Workshops and the state of conductor development in New Zealand. This won me one of two New Zealand Radio Awards in 2012. Now that I no longer work for RNZ, I like to call them “posthumous” recognition.

That said, Radio New Zealand is a bit of a bungee-cord organisation – even when you leave, you don’t really leave. I’ll be doing a bit of freelance work for them in 2012.

Other

Might have missed a few things out…

• I’ve written/broadcast reviews for Theatreview, Scoop, The Critic’s Chair and Nights with Bryan Crump.
• Occasionally I do stand-up comedy. To clarify, occasionally I write comedic songs and perform them. Sometimes they even go on YouTube.
• In the past I did a lot more scripted theatre than I do now. I’ve acted, directed, done sound design and done lighting design.
• I used to play double bass for groups such as the National Youth Orchestra, Auckland Youth Orchestra, Auckland University Orchestra and St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra.
• I’ve got a soft spot for ska music: I used to be in bands called Jonny Doom & The Forcefields and The Army Of Skeggs.
• I have played the following instruments to varying degrees of competence (in alphabetical order): bass guitar, double bass, guitar, percussion, piano, trombone, trumpet.

Contact

You can email me: robbieatrobbiedotcodoten-zed.

(Page last updated 14 May 2012.)