Composure on the world stage
Luka Venter is a composerconductor from Wellington, now living in London. His musical journey began at Onslow College, and continued at Te Kōk¯ı the New Zealand School of Music, where he trained as a singer and composer, eventually picking up a few languages and, crucially, conducting as well.
He trained as a conductor with the NZ Symphony Orchestra and as Orchestra Wellington’s assistant conductor. He went through the NZSO’s Todd Young Composer Awards twice, winning in 2018, and has composed for many of Wellington’s ensembles and institutions.
What is the recent position you’ve been awarded?
I’ve been chosen as one of only three composers to take part in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama opera makers programme, where I’ll be studying composition and conducting – working with the Royal Opera House along the way – and, crucially, will be collaborating with a librettist to create a brand new chamber opera. It means the world to me. It gives me the opportunity to study my craft in both of my disciplines at the highest levels while making vital industry connections, and offers me the unique position of being able to represent the compositional arm of New Zealand opera internationally.
How does it feel to represent Kiwi opera on the world stage?
We have, and continue to produce, some of the world’s finest singers and in fact so many have passed through Guildhall, so being able to take up that mantle as a composer, and forging a path forward as one of Aotearoa’s next operatic composers is a unique privilege and a huge thrill.
How would you describe your artistic process?
Let’s say I’m working on a vocal work – I’ll first analyse the text from
a dramatic and poetic perspective, mining the text for nuances of colour and subtext in the way an actor or poet might and then, with that all resting in my subconscious, I’ll then just allow myself a lot of freedom to just play, and organically respond to the dramatic impulse of the words through pure sound.
I love composing music that hits the listener with a strong sense of colour and emotion, so a lot of my time is spent really mining the musical material for a balance of tension and sonic beauty. There are a lot of broad sweeps, but then a lot of chiselling away at minute details of articulation and rhythm to really make sure every element is considered and precise, while still capturing the listener in an inexorable pull of sound.
In what ways does opera remain relevant to audiences today?
I think fundamentally, as human beings, the sound of another human’s voice resonates in us on an incredibly deep level. If there are nice words riding the wave of that voice, then that’s neat. But primally, the act of a human engaging their body, moulding their voice, and vibrating that voice into your body is a dizzying, irrefutably powerful experience.
Why should we be optimistic about the future of the arts?
The pandemic really hamstrung a lot of organisations and cut out people’s incomes, but I think the difficulties of it all have instilled in people a real drive to just make things happen. Only about a year after we first went into lockdown, Wellington Opera entered the world as our newest opera company and has just recently put on a phenomenal second production.
Leah Thomas and her Pōneke Sessions have created an absolutely thriving hub of activity every week, and the NZSO, Orchestra Wellington, and just about every musician in the city have taken Cuba St by storm for Classical on Cuba. Our practitioners are forging ahead and making incredible things happen, and that’s such exciting and fertile ground for the future. Ultimately, I think people are thinking, if a pandemic can just appear and sweep everything away, why wait, why not make that opportunity yourself and make that idea happen.