Asia-Pacific Music Studio Collection

The musical instrument collection held at the Asia Pacific Music Studio at Victoria University of Wellington consists of musical and sound objects from across the globe. The instruments are used regularly throughout the year in performance, composition, teaching, and research. Highlights of the collection include:

Gamelan

Two complete Indonesian gamelan ensembles: Gamelan Padhang Moncar (Javanese) and Gamelan Taniwha Jaya (Balinese).

Asia-Pacific instruments

Various instruments from the Asia-Pacific region have been acquired over the past thirty years through current and former Victoria University of Wellington staff. These include instruments from China, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines (including a kulintang ensemble), Thailand (including a piphat ensemble), India, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Polynesia (objects from Fiji/Tonga, Hawaii, Tokelau), and other areas. More recently the collection has been augmented with Cook Island drums (pa'u [pahu]) and North Indian drums (tabla and bayan).

Taonga Pūoro collection

Taonga Pūoro Māori Instrument Collection commissioned in 2010 and carved by Wellington-based carver and player Tamihana Katene. The collection consists of:

• tōkere (castanets)
• kōauau (open cross-blown flute)
• pūtōrino (‘bugle flute’)
• pōrutu (long kōauau)
• pūkāea (wooden trumpet)
• pūtātara (conch shell trumpet)
• pūrerehua (bullroarer)
• porotiti (humming disks)

Chinese instrument collection

惠风和畅Hui Feng He Chang (“A Gentle, Pleasant Breeze”)” the Chinese Instrument Collection received in 2016 courtesy of the Confucius Institute. The collection consists of:

• guzheng (21 string zither)
• guqin (7 string zither)
• erhu (2 stringed bowed fiddle)
• pipa (pear-shaped lute)
• bangu (opera drum)
• paigu (tuned drum set)
• paiban (wooden clapper)
• muyu (temple blocks)
• gongs, cymbals.

Older Chinese instruments in the room include erhu (bowed lute), ocarina, flutes and other instruments.

Period instruments

Our collection of period instruments provide a valuable resource for students interested in rediscovering timbres familiar to Baroque and Classical period composers.

The School of Music has a large and growing collection of period instruments, including original examples as well as modern copies. The Baroque organ by the Dutch firm Reil is permanently installed in the Adam Concert Room, and there is also a small transportable continuo organ by William Drake. Among the collection of other historical keyboards is an original 18th century English harpsichord by Jakob Kirckmann, a French double harpsichord, a fretted clavichord and a particularly fine copy of a Viennese fortepiano after Anton Walter (c.1798).

Other Baroque instruments include a flute, oboe, bassoon, viola, an original 18th-century cello, natural trumpets and sackbuts. Natural horns (including an ornately decorated original by an anonymous French maker c.1800) and a clarinet represent the Classical period.

The NZSM offers courses in performance practice, and has used the instruments in productions of Henry Purcell's King Arthur, Campra's Les Fêtes vénitiennes, Eccles's Semele, and Monteverdi's L'Orfeo.

Period keyboards

• Manual and pedal organ - Reil 1993
• Continuo Organ - William Drake 1983
• French double harpsichord - David Rubio 1982 (after Taskin 1769)
• English harpsichord - Jakob Kirckman 1758
• Viennese fortepiano - Derek Adlam 1991 (after Anton Walter, c.1798)
• Fretted clavichord - John Barnes

In 2013, the School expects the arrival of a new Chris Maene replica Conrad Graf Fortepiano
Vienna ca. 1814.

Period strings

• Baroque cello - anon. 18th cent.
• Baroque viola - Adrian Studer

Period woodwind

• Baroque flute - Ardall Powell
• Baroque oboe - Guntrum Wolf (after Scherer, c.1750)
• Baroque bassoon - Guntrum Wolf (after Eisenmenger,1st half 18th-century)
• Classical clarinet - Cornett Monk

Period brass

• Natural horn - Anon., Strasburg c.1800
• Natural horn - John Webb
• Natural trumpet - Egger
• Natural trumpet - John Webb
• Narrow-bore trombones (sackbuts' alto, tenor and bass) - Meinl and Lauber

Galambos-Winter violins

The New Zealand School of Music is very privileged to have two fine violins, (one attributed as ca 19th century Hungarian and the other as ca 18th century Italian). Clare Galambos-Winter, who played with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years, gifted the instruments to the School for use by promising students. You can find out more about Clare's background and her reasons for gifting these violins to the school through an excerpt from a television documentary published on the NZSM Vimeo channel.

School collection

The School has a considerable collection of instruments, which include:

Woodwind and brass

• Greenline Buffet oboe
• Clarinet - Buffet - Eb - RC Silver * 1
• Yamaha Soprano Saxophone
• Selmer Baritone Saxophone - Jubilee Super 80 Series III Low A
• Selmar Bass Clarinet
• Euphonium (Meinl Weston) 551 - Silver plated professional with add on's) * 1
• P Mauriat Saxophone (Baritone) 300BUL
• Trumpet - Schilke Piccolo Trumpet - Schilke P5-4-BG Silver Plated
• Trumpet Butler/Geyer" Bb/A Piccolo

Guitars

• Classical Acoustic Guitar - Jose Ramirez 1A 1972
• Classical Acoustic Guitar - Allegria Concert Guitars (Spain); Model: Requinto Guitar
• Classical Acoustic Guitar - Allegria Concert Guitars (Spain); Model: Contrabass 75 Serial 001

Percussion

• Vanderplas Vibraphone - gigVibe30p; 3 octave with pickup system
• Adams Vibraphone AV-1 with Zildjian high octave crotales & bar; Zildjian low octave crotales & bar
• Orchestral Bass Drum - Ludwig
• Tubular Bells
• Numerous Yamaha drum kits
• Gene Kruper 'Slingerland' drum kit
• Fred Hinger Timpani 31"; 28"; 25"; 23" & 22.5
• Adams XC1HV40 concert xylophone

Other

• Lyon and Healy Harp
• Gebr Reil 30 Rank Pipe Organ
• Double Bass - Stentor with adjustable bridge * 1
• Nord 88 key stage piano

Steinway pianos

In 2012, we added to our large collection of pianos with the purchase of a Steinway Model D concert grand and four Steinway Model B grand pianos. The School already has two other Model D concert grands, a Model C and various other Steinways in its collection.