Judith Clark Photo: www.nzsm.ac.nz
In 2014, well-known New Zealand pianist and piano teacher Judith Clark passed away at the age of 83.
Judith's friend and former colleague, Ross Harris, attended her funeral and was tasked with a very unusual request.
"I was asked to write a piece of music that could be sent with Judith, put into the coffin and sent, but never performed. Just handed in...and gone. And so I wrote the piece and nobody said anything. I was too embarrassed to say 'look, here's the piece - it should be in [the coffin]'."
The piece never did end up where it was meant to be, and Ross ended up taking it home and putting it aside. Then, in 2015 when he was asked to compose a new piece in Judith's memory, he revisited the unperformed work and combined it with an extended version of a little piece he had previously written for Judith's 80th birthday - "a very simple, minimalist, atmospheric piece along the lines of the music that I knew that Judith really loved."
The combination of the two pieces, with slightly different tempos and moods, resulted in beautiful, spacious music box-like music, occasionally reminiscent of the piano pieces Judith would ask Ross to write for students' exams when they worked together at New Zealand School of Music.
Nicola Melville was one of the many students who learned piano from Judith there. And In Memory - Judith Clark was one of three works she commissioned in memory of her teacher. The other two works are Gem by Gareth Farr, and Chat by Eve de Castro-Robinson. Nicola says:
“Judith Clark was a truly deep lover of music, a fierce champion of the music of our time, with an unflagging energy and desire to seek out the treasures of the piano repertoire. I could think of no better way to celebrate her life than to bring new pieces to the repertoire in her honour.”
Here's Nicola performing Ross Harris's In Memory - Judith Clark at the Adam Chamber Music Festival 2015.
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