Gareth Farr

Gareth Farr's music has been performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia and the NZ String Quartet. He has composed for ballet, theatre, contemporary dance, and television (Kaitangata Twitch, Clare, Duggan). Farr is also an accomplished percussionist who has regularly performed with the NZ Symphony Orchestra.

Farr's music is heavily influenced by Indonesian gamelan, Māori Kapahaka, Taiko and Pacific Islands drumming. Farr also dons sequins and stilettos when appearing as his alter ego Lilith LaCroix, the drumming drag queen of live show Drumdrag.

Among other events, Farr was commissioned to create music for the 50th anniversary of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the opening of Te Papa museum. He composed the percussion concerto, Hikoi for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Gareth Farr was born in Wellington, 1968, to a veteran trade unionist father and a writer mother. He studied composition and percussion performance at Auckland University. Later at Victoria University, Farr's composiions increasingly began to use the rhythms and textures of the set of Indonesian musical instruments known as the gamelan.

Farr went on to New York's Eastman School of Music, where he studied composition and graduated with a Masters of Music.

In 1993, at the age of 25, Farr was appointed composer-in-residence by Chamber Music New Zealand. He was the youngest ever composer to hold the position. Three works resulted: Owhiro (String Quartet No. 1), Kebyar Moncar (for gamelan), and the chamber sextet Cadenza.

Farr has also written for television and short films. He composed the soundtrack for television feature Clare (2000), based on one of the women caught up in the "unfortunate experiment" at Auckland's National Women's Hospital.

Farr has also composed music for Gibson Group series The Strip (2002), about a corporate lawyer who opens a strip club, and detective drama Duggan (1999).

His short film scores include Dead Letters (2006), a World War 2-era romance directed by actor Paolo Rotondo, and Spring Flames (2002), an ensemble piece in a clothes factory featuring students from Toi Whakaari drama school.

Farr from Heaven (2006), made for documentary series Artsville, chronicles a six month period as Farr composes and rehearses various pieces of music for Toi Whakaari, a Gallipoli commemoration, and Kiwi percussion ensemble Strike. Farr was also the subject of an earlier doco, the Michael Heath-directed Between Two Worlds (1996).

In 2008, Farr premiered his work Terra Incognita Terra Incognita, commissioned as part of the Artists to Antarctica Programme. That year he also became the Composer in Residence of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

Farr's latest screen composition is for Margaret Mahy fantasy series Kaitangata Twitch, directed by Clare helmer Yvonne Mackay. Farr worked with Māori instrument expert Richard Nunns to create music for the show, as well as sound effects to create the impression of an island possessed.