7 Jun 2021

Dr Graeme Downes - MNZM for services to music

From King’s Birthday Monday with Anna Thomas, 10:50 am on 7 June 2021

Graeme is a rock musician who founded the Verlaines in Dunedin in 1981, at the heart of what came to be known as the Dunedin sound - along with Toy Love, The Chills, The Clean, Straitjacket Fits and many others. Graeme has a classical background - his PhD was in the symphonies of Mahler. He went on to an academic career at Otago University teaching band performance, songwriting, analysis, music theory, seminal works and more. A new limited edition Verlaines double-album on vinyl, Dunedin Spleen, was recently released and swiftly sold out. Graeme has become a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

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Photo: supplied

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