Category: Recepients

The scholarship really helped me pursue my studies.

I am currently a practising artist based in Los Angeles.

I received my BFA from Elam School of Fine Art in 2006.

The years of my studies overseas were from 2007 to 2009. I graduated with a MFA from the Design Media Art Program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Anne Reid Memorial Trust Scholarship was extremely important in helping me fund my studies in Los Angeles. Even though my tuition fees were subsidised with various scholarships and Teaching Assistant positions. Living expenses were still high around the University.

I chose the Design Media Art program because I was interested in new possibilities for artistic creation enabled by digital technology. While still studying for my MFA, I began to show my work internationally in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands as well as within the United States. My masters program gave me the technical and conceptual grounding required to begin a active creative practice. My professors there were amazing mentors and role models and I learned a lot from them. I feel lucky to encounter so many exceptional artists and theorists who are leaders in their field.

This is my current bio. It highlights the most important exhibitions and artist residencies I’ve been part of so far:

Nova Jiang (b. 1985, China) creates work that encourages the tactile and creative participation of the audience, resulting in structurally open systems in which joy, disorder and improvisation can thrive. She holds a MFA in media art from UCLA. She has had recent exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung; ICC, Tokyo; Ars Electronica, Linz; Media City Seoul Biennial, Seoul; 01SJ Biennial, San Jose; Sundance New Frontier, Park City among other venues. She is the recipient of Fellowships from Skowhegan, Eyebeam and Wave Hill.  She grew up in New Zealand and is currently based in Los Angeles.

Here is my website where you can see my recent work. 

Here is my cv.

My studies took place at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Los Angeles, California. I set out to achieve a Masters of Fine Arts degree and I am happy and grateful to report that the Anne Reid Memorial Scholarship contributed significantly to the successful completion of my degree. Without the scholarship, I would not have been able to pay for my tuition during the second year of my degree.

I could not have anticipated the extent to which my time at CalArts would change me as an artist and as a person. The school is recognised internationally as a leading educational institution for the production and theorisation of experimental art, across many of the major creative disciplines. The depth of knowledge and expertise I gained from my studies was so immense that I have completely re-imagined the way that I conceptualize, produce and engage with art. I cannot imagine a better place to have completed my post-graduate education.

Whilst studying I produced a number of different moving image works, ranging radically in concept, production value and duration. This experimentation can be understood as a result of my engagement with the major environmental and educational differences that I was surrounded by in Los Angeles; living in a foreign country forced me to confront and re-evaluate many of my assumptions about contemporary art. By the end of the three-year degree, these influences had settled into a rigorous new practice.

During my second year at CalArts, the independent New Zealand curator, Mark Williams commissioned me to contribute to the Creative New Zealand funded project, Artists Cinema. The resulting artwork, Carmen San Diego: Out Of Work And On The Run was included in the Artists Cinema screening at the New Zealand International Film Festival, and was also exhibited in a group show at Artspace, Auckland, as well as a New Zealand moving image showcase at the Centre Pompidou, Paris and LUX, London. Mark also invited me to participate in his online project, Circuit, a tremendous and important new addition to the New Zealand art community.

Since graduating, I have been involved in the distribution and exhibition of my thesis movie, HADHAD. The beginning of this process began with a screening event at CalArts, where I installed the movie outside in a field for its public debut. The movie had its first screening in New Zealand in a show at The Physics Room, Christchurch and went on to be exhibited at St. Paul St Gallery in Auckland. It has since screened in various events in Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin, Oberhausen, Latvia, and Vienna.

I am also very proud to say that an internship I began with the artists Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch has now developed into a full-time job. Ryan and Lizzie are two of the most exciting young artists working in the United States today, with shows at MoMA PS1, the Whitney Biennale, and the Venice Biennale 2013, to name just a few of the venues worldwide that have showcased their art. I work in the artists’ studio as the Exhibitions Manager and Registrar. My relationship with Ryan and Lizzie has so far taken me to Zurich, Paris, New York, Stockholm, Venice, and Bilbao to manage the production and deinstallation of major museum shows.

How has the scholarship helped you during your year (s) overseas?

The Anne Reid Memorial Scholarship was used to assist me in my vocal studies in the United Kingdom under the direction of vocal practitioner, Enid Hartle.

I received tuition of the highest degree in London, and undertook language and further vocal coaching from staff at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the English National Opera.

The scholarship also allowed me to audition for professional programmes offered by opera companies in the United Kingdom and in Europe. I auditioned for Young Artists programmes in France, successfully making the final 16 at L’Opéra Studio National du Rhin.

I travelled throughout Europe and took part in competitions and festivals in Barcelona and Stuttgart. I auditioned for conductors in the UK and Germany and for agents in the United Kingdom. I successfully gained representation through an agent in the United Kingdom.

I undertook chorus contracts with the English National Opera, a highlight being a performance of “War and Peace” at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms series.

Although highly sort after as a soloist, my visa status prevented me from remaining in the UK permanently. This also left me in the position that I could not accept work as a soloist.

What you are doing now?

Since returning to New Zealand, I have been employed and continue working with all of the major New Zealand Choral Societies. I have also undertaken roles with NBR New Zealand Opera and have toured with Class Act Opera.

I (re)trained as a Primary School Teacher and now juggle two careers; one as a freelance mezzo-soprano soloist within New Zealand, the other as a full-time music specialist at Pinehill School in Auckland.

I have worked as a vocal consultant with the NZ Youth Choir, the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir and the Auckland Choral Society, touring with the NZSSC to Canada to compete in the International Choral Kathaumixw.

I received a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Scholarship in 2011 and spent a period of time in Salzburg, Austria, undertaking study of children’s music education and the young singers’ voice. This was most beneficial to my current teaching practice in schools.

I teach singing, assisting members of the Auckland Choral Society with vocal technique. I also teach a small number of private pupils.

I am most grateful for the funding I received through Anne Reid Memorial Scholarship Trust. It allowed me the opportunity to study abroad and further my skills and career as a mezzo-soprano soloist.

My study with Enid Hartle was more specialized than was available to me in New Zealand and without this funding, this career advancement would not have been possible.

Thomas Eves is from Christchurch, New Zealand and has been playing trumpet and cornet since the age of 6. Brought up playing in the Woolston Brass Band and St Andrew’s College Jazz Band, Thomas has gone on to focus on orchestral trumpet playing and has played with professional orchestras in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Thomas is currently the Principal Trumpet of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and has held Acting Associate Principal Trumpet contracts with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in early 2013 and 2014.

In July 2012, Thomas completed a Master of Performance with Distinction at The Royal College of Music in London. Thomas received the Herbert Samuel Prize for Trumpet and the Brodie Prize for Senior Brass and was generously supported as a RCM Jane Barker Scholar, as well as New Zealand scholarships including The Patricia Pratt Scholarship, Dame Malvina Major Arts Excellence Awards and Kiwi Music, Anne Reid Memorial Trust and Keith Laugesen Music Scholarships. He is also grateful for support from Adrienne, Lady Stewart and Elizabeth Edgar. He gained his Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours in Performance Trumpet at Canterbury University in Christchurch.

During his time in London, Thomas won a trial for Principal Trumpet of The Royal Scottish National Orchestra and performed as a soloist with The Philharmonia Orchestra London Chamber Group in a concert trip to Klosters, Switzerland. Thomas was also a part of many notable Royal College of Music projects including playing section principal for Shostakovich 10, Mahler 5, Tchaikovsky 5 and Bruckner 8, playing under Bernard Haitink for Bruckner 8 and An Alpine Symphony. He has also played under Lorin Maazel as part of The Castleton Festival 2011 in Virginia, USA – playing section principal in multiple programmes including Puccini’s La Boehme, Stravinsky’s A Soldiers Tale and Gershwin classics such as Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and Concerto in F. Thomas has also performed solo recitals in London at Cadogan Hall and in The Elgar Room at The Royal Albert Hall. Back at home, Thomas was runner up in the 2012 Gisborne International Music Competition, the only New Zealander in the finals. In 2013 he won the New Zealand Woodwind and Brass Prize.

Thomas is an active teacher around Christchurch and is currently the trumpet teacher at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch School of Music, as well as teaching privately around the city.

After auditioning and being subsequently offered places at both the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (GSMD), I chose to study with New Zealander, Senior Professor Joan Havill, on the Artist Masters programme at the GSMD. In order to finance this study as an international student living and studying in London, I had to embark on a significant fundraising drive.

I was fortunate enough to receive substantial financial assistance in the form of scholarships from the University of Auckland, and this played an essential role in enabling me to further my studies in London. I was awarded the Anne Reid Memorial Trust Scholarship in 2011, and this helped to finance the second year of my Masters programme.

I graduated from the GSMD in February 2013 with a Master of Performance degree with distinction. My time at the GSMD was intensive, and hugely inspiring. The environment of the school, and indeed the wider London music scene continues to invigorate me and open my eyes to new possibilities.

I primarily studied solo piano repertoire with Professor Havill, however I also took a classical improvisation paper with David Dolan, and participated in a project with Paul Roberts on Ravelʼs piano music, in which I contributed a performance of Le Tombeau de Couperin at a lecture-recital he gave at Wigmore Hall.

I am now enjoying a freelance performance career in both the classical and jazz worlds, alongside maintaining a small teaching studio in Bloomsbury. Iʼm a member of Goodenough College, where I host a weekly jazz jam session that regularly features guest appearances by musicians from the London circuit in addition to showcasing musicians from within the College itself. I also curate the Goodenough Concert Series, which features recitals by local musicians, many of whom are students at the top London music conservatoires.

I was recently involved in the 2013 Bloomsbury Festival, where I gave a classical recital at the Dairy Art Centre (a fantastic new contemporary art space), curated the festival jazz stage, and collaborated on an audio/visual presentation of 30,000 Gods & Myths from the Warburg Institute which culminated in a performance in which I improvised a solo piano soundtrack in response to a visual presentation prepared by François Quiviger from the Institute.

Other career highlights from the past few years include an invitation to participate in the 2011 Oxford Philomusica International Piano Festival and Summer Academy, a week-long series of concerts at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of the Royal Over-Seas  League series, a residency as one of the official pianists participating in the New Zealand exhibit at the 54th Venice Biennale, and a performance for Her Majesty the Queen, during the 80th anniversary celebrations of Goodenough College.

Iʼm looking forward to visiting New Zealand in March 2014 for a Chamber Music New Zealand Encompass tour with the Rangitoto Trio (Amalia Hall – violin, and Callum Hall – cello).

November 2013

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