Opportunity struck. Or maybe it was just hard work over a long time that eventually paid off. On the back of years of engineering live broadcasts of the orchestras in Auckland, I was invited by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra to help them out with a concert for which they needed a sound designer and front-of-house sound engineer. That’s the person who sits behind the big sound desks at live concerts.
The gig was a crossover concert of classical and pop music. Or rather modern soul, as it featured a young emerging New Zealand singer called Teeks. By now he’s hit his stride, released his debut album and in New Zealand most people know who he is.
The idea for that concert was to strip back his music, let the orchestra play most of it and let his quiet and soulful singing float over the top. Easily said, not easily done. We had to come up with a special design of the line-array loudspeakers. That’s the big column of loudspeakers that you see at big concerts.
Because the event was held in the beautiful Auckland Town Hall, which has a very reverberant room sound, we didn’t want to amplify the orchestra. It would be so much nicer if the orchestra sounded natural. So I had to find a way to amplify Teeks’ singing so that it sounds natural and unamplified so that it gels with the acoustic sound of the orchestra. That’s a biiiiig challenge. But we pulled it off.
The event was sold out, got rave reviews and on the back of that I’ve been hired by the orchestra to do lots more of those concerts. Life is interesting. :-)
New Zealand neo-soul singer Louis Baker and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Since then we have done a few more of those crossover concerts. For example the neo-soul singer Louis Baker. Then as of writing this blog, we’re planning concerts by Maori songwriter Rob Ruha and Country-girl Tami Neilson. They’re all fabulous singers and songwriters.
