Bess Manson has written a great article on Gareth in The Dominion Post (April 23rd 2016), and it’s accompanied by a fantastic, nearly full-page photo by Ross Giblin.

As a kid, Gareth Farr played the piano as if it had committed some sort of misdemeanour. He hit those ivory keys like they were a contrary set of drums. The guitar didn’t get off lightly either.

He whacked its strings and thwacked its body to extract the pure resonance he craved.

Percussion was his destiny.

Read the full article here.

Come along and join Emcee Gareth Farr and Wellington’s performing arts fraternity as we band together to honour a beloved friend, colleague and cohort – Robbie Tripe.

Sunday 6th September at San Fran, a one night only performance to raise money and awareness for The Mental Health Foundation NZ. This tribute is our way of honouring a talented member of the performing community, who left us after losing his battle with the Black Dog.

Led by Musical Director Fiona McCabe, the stellar ensemble cast for Black Dog Relief will comprise celebrated performers including Carrie McLaughlan (Beat Girls), Jane Keller (Boomers Behaving Badly), and Carmel McGlone (Reservoir Hill).

Majestically presiding over the event will be Emcee Gareth Farr, who has decided to give his stage persona Lilith LaCroix an outing… “ I thought that Robbie would get a kick out of it. It’s very important for me to show how much I adore him as an artist and as a gay man – this is my way of giving Robbie a befitting tribute and this is how I want to express it in my own way. We basically want this show to be a celebration – not a memorial of Robbie’s life and we want to acknowledge the joy that he brought to all of us, whose lives he touched along the way.”

More details on the event’s facebook page.

Sharu Loves Hats in collaboration with Cuba Creative presents

Black Dog Relief – A Cabaret for Robbie Tripe

San Fran, 171 Cuba Street, Wellington
Sunday 6th September, 7 pm (approx. 90+ minutes)

TICKETS: $25
BOOKINGS: www.blackdog.shoretix.co.nz

In August 2015, Gareth will attend a performance of the ‘Gallipoli Symphony’ in Istanbul, Turkey, at the invitation of the Turkish and Australian governments.

The piece is a compilation of all ten commissioned works for the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli for the last decade, one of which was composed by Gareth. The performance will be on the 4th August 2015, in the Hagia Irene.

Two new short pieces by Gareth were premiered in early 2015.

The first was Gem for solo piano, commissioned by Nicola Melville in memory of her teacher Judith Clark, who died in early 2014.

Gem was premiered on the 6th February (Waitangi Day) in Nelson at the 2015 Adam Chamber Music Festival, as part of a series of piano concerts dedicated to Judith Clark.

The second piece was Fifty Fifty – commissioned by Dame Evelyn Glennie for solo bongos, in honour of her 50th birthday (50 bars for 50 years).

Dame Evelyn has performed Gareth’s percussion concerto in NZ and Australia (with the NZSO), and in Canada with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

Fifty Fifty was premiered by Dame Evelyn Glennie at the Teatro di San Carlo (the Naples Opera House), in Naples, Italy, on the 16th of May 2015.

New Zealand theatre company The Conch have once again engaged Gareth to compose a soundtrack, this time for their new intercultural work Marama.

It will be their third production with Gareth as composer. 2003’s Vula won him the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards ‘Outstanding Composer of Original Music’ award, and Masi in 2009 won critical acclaim at the NZ and Sydney Festivals.

Marama will feature performers from the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and New Zealand.

Masi