Julian Kirgan Báezgraduated from the Te Koki New Zealand School of Music in 2013 and two years later was appointed as Orchestra Wellington’s Sub-Principal Trombonist. He took up composition during the 2020 lockdown, and he says his music has been shaped by his time performing in orchestras.
He describes his 2022 work, Reflection, as an introspective journey that begins in a contemplative state next to the Waimapihi stream deep in Wellington’s Aro Valley. We hear musical depictions of beams of sunlight piercing through the bush and the gentle trickling of the stream. The music guides us through a sense of melancholy with deep sighing breaths before sweeping away into more restless harmonies and melodic ideas. What began as a clear natural image becomes a journey of internal moods and ideas that swirl toward a colourful and dramatic finale.
