Music to his ears

Associate professor in instrumental and vocal composition at The New Zealand School of Music Jack Body’s latest cross-cultural composition is a production called ‘The Seven Ages of Man’, which is a “multimedia music theatre” piece based on lines in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well. ‘The Seven Ages of Man’ mixes parts of the Bard in English with music from the Javanese and Balinese gamelan repertoires. Body’s compositions have been performed in the United States and Holland. He is also a widely exhibited photographer and runs music publishing company, Waiteata Music Press. Jack Body was awarded an ONZSM for his services to music, education and photography, and in 2004 was honoured by the Arts Foundation of NZ as a laureate. Body hopes to tour ‘Seven Ages’ around New Zealand and Indonesia.