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About Us
Resonance Ensemble was formed in February 2012 by players and is now firmly established as an integral part of the musical landscape of Christchurch and beyond. Recognised as a high-quality, innovative and flexible orchestral ensemble, Resonance provides opportunities for musicians and audiences to experience both popular and novel repertoire beyond the more standard fare offered by Christchurch’s only fully professional orchestra. Programmes range from music for chamber orchestra, works for larger ensemble, and New Zealand compositions, including new commissions.
The orchestra, conducted by Tony Ryan, rehearses weekly, presenting four concerts per year, and works primarily with Christchurch-based soloists. Previous conductors have included Helen Renaud, Anthony Ferner and Mark Hodgkinson.
Remaining dates for 2025 are: 15 June, 14 September and 30 November, so diary them now. We look forward to presenting wonderful and innovative programmes for our growing and appreciative audience.
Thanks for your support.
Our next concert is:
Music for Matariki
3pm, Sunday 15 June at The Piano
In 2024 Resonance Ensemble celebrated the Māori New Year with a concert of music by New Zealand composers. It was a very successful venture for both audience and players, so the orchestra and conductor Tony Ryan will present another programme of New Zealand music the Sunday before this year’s Matariki holiday.
The first part of this concert will feature John Ritchie’s colourful and descriptive Papanui Road Overture, written in 1987 a few years after the composer had moved to live near this busy Christchurch street. Besides being one of Christchurch’s most well-known composers, John founded a string orchestra which eventually became what is now the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. On his ninetieth birthday in 2011, the CSO marked the occasion with a special concert which included some of Ritchie’s own music as well as a work specially written for the occasion by his son Anthony. Resonance Ensemble’s programme includes Anthony Ritchie’s evocative 1996 composition Albatross in Flight. John Ritchie’s 90th birthday concert fourteen years ago, opened with another specially commissioned piece by another of his former students, our conductor, Tony Ryan, whose Fanfare for John opens this year’s Matariki programme.
The main work in this year’s concert is also by Tony Ryan. His Saxophone Concerto will be played by Auckland saxophonist Mark Hobson for whom the work was originally written. The solo part is for soprano saxophone rather than the more familiar alto or tenor, and the concerto is as much a spectacular orchestral showpiece as an opportunity for the soloist to demonstrate his virtuosity.
Music by Claire Cowan and Pieta Hextall completes this year’s line-up of New Zealand composers. Claire Cowan’s The Stolen Stars of Matariki was originally written for the NZSO to accompany a story by Miriama Kamo. Resonance Ensemble has invited Leah Williams-Partington of Loopy Tunes fame, to narrate the story, making this concert highly suitable for young people as well as our regular audience. Pieta Hextall’s quirky and mischievous take on music for a wedding, with its prominent saxophone part, will make her Wedding Mixtape a fun encore for our soloist, and a light-hearted finale to end this unique and celebratory concert.
Tony Ryan is well-known to Christchurch audiences as a conductor, composer, educator, and reviewer. As a conductor he learnt his craft as repetiteur, chorus master and conductor for many organisations including Canterbury Opera where he was assistant to international guest conductors including Vanco Cavdarski, John Matheson, Martin Turnovsky and many others. Since then he has worked extensively as a conductor and composer for Court Theatre, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, the Christchurch Youth Orchestra and others.
In addition to Resonance Ensemble, Tony is the conductor of the Christchurch School of Music Sinfonia and the Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival Orchestra.
Conductor: Tony Ryan
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His compositions have frequently been performed and broadcast in New Zealand
and abroad, most recently by Resonance Ensemble, the Christchurch Symphony
Orchestra, the Canterbury Philharmonia, and orchestras from the Christchurch
School of Music. Most recently, he conducted Resonance Ensemble in his orchestral song cycle Omi-Kin-Kan as part of a concert of works by New Zealand composers.
As a teacher Tony led the performing arts at Linwood College for more than thirty
years followed by several years working in Kenya and Singapore.
Tony also writes on matters of musical interest – check out his website here.
Saxophone: Mark Hobson
Mark began his musical career under the watchful eye of his mother Noeline, who was his first music teacher. After deciding that the violin was not his instrument, Mark concentrated on the clarinet, later taking up the saxophone after seeing Mark Walton perform. This sparked a lifelong passion of exploring and extending the classical saxophone repertoire.
Mark has made a practice of promoting and commissioning new works for his instruments and has performed works written for him by many New Zealand composers, including Tony Ryan, Philip Norman, Gao Ping, Anthony Ritchie, and Eric Biddington. Mark plays regularly in several ensembles including the Whēkau Trio, the Hoekstra/Kime/Hobson Trio, which specialises exploring the unique sound of Euro Jazz, and is also a member of the Aeolus Saxophone Collective, comprised of players who come together regularly to perform throughout New Zealand. Mark has performed as a soloist and in ensembles internationally, where he always showcases new compositions by New Zealand composers.
Narrator: Leah Williams-Partington
Leah is one half, alongside her sister, Siu, of the children’s music duo, Loopy Tunes Preschool Music, best known for their bilingual children’s waiata, and the Outreach Music classes they run here in Ōtautahi. They both love bringing a cultural vibe to the children’s music world and also enjoy travelling around Aotearoa to give concerts, run music sessions at preschools, and workshops for educators.
Leah comes from a very musical family, learning flute through the Christchurch School of Music, and eventually teaching there for many years, prior to making the switch to her current full-time role in Loopy Tunes. She was a student at Linwood High School, when Resonance conductor Tony Ryan was Head of the Music department, and she played alongside some of Resonance’s current musicians in the school orchestra, with her older sister as the lead violinist, brother on trumpet, and Siu on clarinet. She is excited to narrate the wonderful story of The Stolen Stars of Matariki, as part of Resonance’s Matariki concert.
Leader: Cornelia Didenco
Cornelia was born in Moldova, one of the ex-Soviet Union republics and is a graduate of the Moldavian State Conservatorium. She has more than 30 years’ experience teaching and for most of that time has also played in symphony orchestras in both Moldova and New Zealand. During her time in the Moldavian Symphony Orchestra she performed at the Sala Verdi in La Scala, and at other prestigious venues in Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Romania.
After emigrating to New Zealand, she joined the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and has also appeared as a soloist and in chamber groups, and as the leader of Resonance Ensemble. Since joining the CSO she has toured with them to Japan and has performed with celebrities such as Diana Krall, Cliff Richard, George Benson, Serj Tankian, and Andrea Bocelli.