With breath for peace

Richard Nunns, an authority on Maori traditional instruments or taonga puoro, performed the Gillian Whitehead composed “Hineputehue” at Luther College, Minnesota with the New Zealand String Quartet last month. Dunedin based Whitehead wrote “Hineputehue” — the woman of the gourd, the Maori Goddess of Peace — on commission for the 2002 Wellington International Festival. The piece played with nearly a dozen traditional instruments, was performed in addition to Mendelssohn and Schubert. In 2008, Nunns was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Victoria University. Gillian Karawe Whitehead is one of the most acclaimed composers in Australasia.