Projects
Rob was the Creative NZ / Jack C. Richards 2017-2018 Composer-In-Residence at the New Zealand School of Music, Victoria University, Wellington.
In October of 2018, Rob showcased his solo toi puoro work at the premiere world music event WOMEX in Gran Canarias.
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Rob Thorne Toi Puoro
Performer / Composer
Rob is a profoundly original voice in the evolving journey of Taonga Puoro.
His inaugural solo album on Rattle Records, "Whāia Te Māramatanga" (2013) is a deeply felt and highly concentrated conversation between the past and the present - a musical passage of identity and connection. Using modern loop technology and traditional Māori flutes and horns made from stone, bone, shell and wood, Rob creates a transcendent aural experience that touches the soul with timeless beauty. Every performance is a stunning and very personal exploration of the spiritual and healing qualities of an ancient practise.
"Thorne has successfully re-imagined and reconstructed traditional Māori instrumental music for the 21st century." - NZ Musician
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Fis and Rob Thorne
Electronics / Taonga Puoro
In a unique collaboration, Māori sound artist Rob Thorne (Ngāti Tumutumu) and Berlin based electronic composer Fis dismantle boundaries in space, time, and genre, juxtaposing Thorne’s living, breathing practice with the weight of modern sound systems.
"Thorne's unique instrumentation awash with Fis' juggernaut mix of murky electronics" - Bleep
"These two musicians hit with a weight of a dynamo" - Fluid Radio
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Te Ao Hou / This New World - with The New Zealand String Quartet
Chamber Music and Taonga Puoro
At the heart of Te Ao Hou | This New World are the stone, wood, shell and bone of taonga pūoro (traditional Māori instruments). Born of the earth and water, these instruments produce sounds unique to Aotearoa. Conjuring a realm of light and dreams is Rob Thorne, a master of taonga pūoro, performing the world premiere of his Tomokanga with the New Zealand String Quartet.
Music by New Zealand composers Gillian Whitehead, Gareth Farr and Salina Fisher further ignites the synergies between taonga pūoro and Western string instruments. Another ground-breaking collaboration by the virtuosic New Zealand String Quartet, our leading chamber ensemble.
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Rewa - with Tania Giannouli and Steve Garden
Piano and Taonga Puoro
CRITICALLY REVERED RELEASE OF THE YEAR - RATTLE RECORDS
Getting rave reviews at home and abroad, this powerful work from Tania Giannouli and Rob Thorne stands as a compelling example of Rattle's dedication to music that transcends generic boundaries.
The ancient cultures of Greece and Aotearoa inform this expressive set of textural tapestries from pianist Tania Giannouli and one of the leading taonga pūoro exponents, Rob Thorne.
A project of deep and visceral improvisations by two uncompromising explorative musicians, REWA was recorded over a two-day period in May 2017, less than a day after Tania and Rob met for the first time.
“A mesmerizing exercise in deep magic” Roland Schepper, Textura
"Essential, Important and Fascinating" Graham Reid, elsewhere.co.nz
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Pyramid Lake
Indigenous Free Jazz
Four dynamic musicians from Wellington, New Zealand with varying backgrounds from noise rock, taonga pūoro and jazz to contemporary classical who share a love for improv & sonic exploration.
Dexter Stanley-Tauvao - drums
Glen Downie - saxophones
Simon Eastwood - double bass
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Te Kōkī Acousmatic Dawn Chorus and Birdsong Archive Project
Acousmatic
Coming from a desire to explore and engage with issues around soundscape ecology and sustainability, the amplitude of species diversity over time and the impacts of extinction, acoustic archaeology, and the ways art and science can work together to bring understanding and change. Te Kōkī: An Acousmatic Performance is the first of a series in a longitudinal research project that will incorporate ecological population science and data sonification to formulate models of sonic representation.
In association with Kent Macpherson of WINTEC, the NZ School of Music and Zealandia.
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Tohorā - with George Johnston
Live Filtered Electronics of Taonga Puoro.
Five conversations between taonga pūoro and performative technology.
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Sonic Installations
TE AHI KĀ (2018 / 2019)
Works commissioned by Wellington City waterfront celebrations of Matariki, Māori New Year. Installations created for specifically themed spaces, roving acousmatic works for school parades, and fanfare compositions for full PA to announce event commencement and the arrival of the new year. Some were also included in a soundtrack for a pyrotechnic display at another WCC event.
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Film Work
SUPER SPECIAL (2019)
In this beautiful short film about a young girl who gets her period for the first time, Rob co-composed the original score and performed taonga puoro and electric guitar. As cultural advisor he worked closely with the director/writer Ashley Williams in the appropriate expression of te ao Māori to ensure authenticity and relevance. Funded by Someday Stories and released online, Super Special resonated deeply within the kiwi psyche and went viral with over half a million views in its first week.
Rob Thorne IMDb: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm11051291/
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Ko Tō Manawa, Ko Tōku, Puritia - Your Heart is My Heart, Take Hold
with Tristan Dingemans & Orchestra Wellington
Commissioned by Orchestra Wellington and premiered at the Michael Fowler Centre with soloists Tristan Dingemans (electric guitar) and Rob Thorne (taonga puoro), ‘Puritia’ was inspired by the High Dependency Unit instrumental ‘Hold On’ (Tristan Dingemans, Neil Phillips and Constantine Karlis) and orchestrated by Thomas Goss.
”… the music expands, the loud percussion emphasizes the rhythmic elements and the piece, and the music, come to an overwhelming climax reminiscent of great Shostakovich climaxes, foreshadowing the rest of the programme. The guitar, which in a rock music context is loud and dominant was somehow overshadowed by the symphony orchestra, but this was an exciting piece of music” Review by Middle-C
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He Pūtōrino Mākutu (Eine Zauberflöte / A Magic Flute)
A Taonga Puoro Puppet Opera
Premiered as part of the Celeste Oram commission Tautitotito for the 2018 Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, and then remounted for Future Festival in association with The San Diego Symphony, He Pūtōrino Mākutu (Eine Zauberflöte/A Magic Flute) is a chamber opera that combines two musical traditions from antipodes of the globe: Viennese classicism and taonga pūoro - the instrumental musical heritage of the Maori peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Musical borrowings from Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven are reimagined and responded to with original music and a bilingual libretto in Te Reo Māori and German. A trans-Pacific cast of vocalists from Aotearoa and the United States joins forces with San Diego musicians onstage with shadow puppets by the San Diego Guild of Puppetry. Featuring soloists Isabella Moore, Niuafolau Joel Amosa, Nina Guo, Barbara Byers, Keir GoGwilt, Salina Fisher, Amy Cimini, Judith Hamann, Kyle Motl, Wilfrido Terrazas, Madison Greenstone, Alexandria Smith and Rob Thorne, with music and text by Celeste Oram, Rob Thorne, Vini Olsen-Reeder, Alex Taylor & Jeannette Mohr