SoundCathedral is an immersive work for choir, ensemble and taonga puoro collective composed by Associate Professor Michael Norris from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington for the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts 2026. He received funding from the University’s Faculty Strategic Research Grants toward the performance project.
Featuring one of New Zealand’s premier chamber choirs The Tudor Consort, as well as acclaimed contemporary music ensemble Stroma and taonga puoro collective the Rangatuone Ensemble, the soundscape encourages the audience to explore the cathedral as the musicians perform throughout the space.
“You’ll be surrounded by a sea of sound rather than just experiencing a standard stage audience layout,” says Michael.
At one point the players climb the stairs and perform in spaces known as the Minstrel’s Gallery and the Juliet Balcony, plus the pulpit, gallery and aisles down the side of the nave, playing music that echoes through the years dating back to the 1500s.
At its core is the Sibylline Prophecies by Renaissance composer Orlando di Lasso (Lassus) which is woven with contemporary instrumental textures from Aotearoa.
Michael was approached by Tudor Consort ahead of their 40th birthday last year to see if the chamber ensemble he co-founded, Stroma, wanted to be part of a celebratory collaboration.
The suggestion by Tudor Consort director Michael Stewart to weave in the Sibylline Prophecies as a kind of “found object” was eagerly accepted.
“There’s constant contrast and reconciliation between 16th-century sacred music and contemporary sounds and textures. The composition both draws on the futuristic harmonies of the Lassus as well as the gestural elements of the taonga puoro,” Michael says.
The six taonga puoro players in the Rangatuone Ensemble will be led by Dr Riki Pirihi, using ‘conduction’, a style of ‘choreograhic’ conducting that he adapted in doctoral research into a te ao Māori perspective. Most of the taonga puoro are made of bone, stone and wood and include kōauau (a flute-type instrument), pūtōrino (bugle flute), hue (gourd) instruments and pūtātara (conch shell trumpet).
“As the space is so large and I wanted to use the whole space, you can’t really have a single conductor, as one individual wouldn’t be visible to all parts of the cathedral,” Michael says.
With that came the “logistic consequence” that all players will have to run a shared timer on their smartphones, to let them know at what precise point in the performance they need to join in to play their part.
“At 76 minutes, it’s quite ambitious in scope,” Michael says.
Being staged in a church, the event even includes bellringers from Wellington Cathedral, plus an organist for one short section of the performance.
“I had to write with the acoustics in mind, so I’ve ended up with a lot of slow spacious textures, and of course it’s great for the choir,” Michael says.
Adding to the theatrical nature of the event is the opportunity for the audience to move around the multiple spaces to observe the multiple performances or remain in their pews to take in a quite different kind of sound and light show — all made possible by the research grant funding.
“This kind of large-scale funding enables ambitious, public research from our staff that would otherwise not be possible," he says.
“While you can expect a work that has quite familiar tonal harmonies from the Lassus, it’s interesting that he was experimenting with a quite modern sound that at times evokes film music harmony. Contemporary film scores use a lot of these harmonic progressions that Lassus was writing some 450 years earlier,” he says.
“SoundCathedral will bring together 16th-century choral music, contemporary instrumental textural writing, cinematic harmonies and six taonga puoro players! It’s unlike anything I’ve ever written before, and will be unlike anything you’ve ever heard before: but I have a strong vision for how it will all meld together and unfold in the beautiful acoustics of the cathedral.”
SoundCathedral is being staged at Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, 7.30pm, Sunday 1 March. Tickets are available from the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts website.