April 25th saw the successful staging of the 100 year tribute Concert for Maxwell Fernie at St. Mary of the Angels Church in Wellington, culminating in the presentation of the inaugural Maxwell Fernie Trust Scholarship to a very-deserving Thomas Gaynor.

The capacity audience was treated to a wide range of musical tributes, compèred by James Young and introduced by Andrew Fernie. The programme included St Mary's Choir, soprano Rowena Simpson and musicians from the NZSO interspersed with archive footage of Maxwell and a contemporary interview with one of his first organ students, Nicolas Kynaston (now an internationally renowned organist in his own right).

The distinctive Fernie Organ at St Mary's sounded well in the curtain raiser from City Organist Douglas Mews with Bach's Prelude and Fugue in G and the finale - Widor's toccata (with a pause before the final cadence to sing 'Happy Birthday') played by St Mary's organist Donald Nicolson.

A special feature was Helen Bowater's composition for the centenary, "The Non-singing Seats", a poem by Wellington Artist and poet Gregory O'Brien set in dialogue with violin and viola - superbly played by Yury Gezentsvey and Peter Barber - capturing the impact that Maxwell Fernie had on the listener. The poem first found life in two etchings commissioned by the Maxwell Fernie Trust - www.maxwellfernietrust.com/article.php?id=15 - and is the brain-child of Peter McLeavey.

The highlight of the evening was the presentation by the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, the Hon. Chris Finlayson, of the first scholarship to Thomas Gaynor, a talented under-graduate music student at Victoria University. Some poignant video clips of Max in full flight as a teacher were then aptly followed by a stunning performance by Thomas of the Finale from Vierne's first Organ Symphony receiving a rapturous and sustained applause.

The evening ended with a birthday party for Maxwell attended by a multitude of friends and associates from around the country. The highlight being the cutting of the birthday cake, enjoyed with great gusto in his absence. Special and heartfelt thanks go to Vonnie Nunns, Bernadette Coup and Kay Poynton for ensuring this party was a great success.

Indeed, grateful thanks is owed to everyone involved and in attendance who made this such a memorable and fitting night for the launch of a wonderful Scholarship.

A 100 year tribute CD has been released and is available upon request (secretary@maxwellfernietrust.com) at $25

Roy Tankersley and Julius Fernie

	(Sr M Winefride with Sr Antonia)
Photos © Annette Scullion

This major event in the life of the Maxwell Fernie Trust is fast approaching so enter it in your diaries now and do your best to keep the time free. It will be a fascinating evening.

The date chosen marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of this fine and hugely influential musician, who from 1958-1999 was director of music at St Mary of the Angels.

The occasion will have as its centrepiece the presentation of the first Maxwell Fernie Organ Scholarship by the Hon Chris Finlayson, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage.

This scholarship, with a total value of $10,000, will greatly assist promising young musicians to further their studies in New Zealand and overseas. The scholarship is comprehensive in scope, incorporating performance, organ building and tonal design, meeting organists and viewing organs.

The recipient will perform on the Maxwell Fernie organ.

Many facets of Max Fernie's contribution to New Zealand music, as choral director, organist, teacher, composer and also his impact on the listener will be touched on in the course of the evening.

There will be a filmed interview with celebrated English organist Nicholas Kynaston, a student of Maxwell Fernie when the latter was organist at Westminster Cathedral in London in the 1950s.

Look out for a surprise guest introducing the Fernie organ followed by a tribute performance of Bach by the well-known and universally loved Wellington organist, keyboard specialist and teacher Douglas Mews.

An unusual item will be a musical counterpoint for violin and viola by composer Helen Bowater to a poem, "The Non-Singing Seats" by Wellington poet Greg O'Brien. The poem with imagination and humour gives an impression of the impact Maxwell Fernie has on worshippers at St Mary's. This will feature narration by the poet and soloists violinist Yury Gezentsvey and violist Peter Barber, both of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Donald Nicolson, the present organist at St Mary's, and the St Mary of the Angels choir, under musical director Robert Oliver, will contribute to underscore the continuing tradition of fine music-making at the church.

A singing pupil of Maxwell Fernie, Rowena Simpson, will perform with harpsichordist Douglas Mews and viola da gamba player Robert Oliver.

The evening will conclude with a birthday cake and supper served in the hall adjacent to the church. A bonus of attending will be that listeners will be offered a specially collated centennial CD ($25.00), limited to 250 copies, to remember the occasion.

The Maxwell Fernie Trust has enjoyed another rewarding year and is now tantalisingly close to achieving its founding goal. We are delighted to announce that the first scholarship for organ will be presented on 25 April 2010 at the centenary celebration of the birth of Maxwell Fernie.

The winner of the Maxwell Fernie Centenary Award 2010 will receive financial support for a programme of study and experience. The Award is made up of the following four elements.

• Tuition fees to contribute to the cost of studying organ at the New Zealand School of Music under Douglas Mews ($2,000).
• An introduction to organ building and tonal design over a two to four week period. This will be undertaken with the South Island Organ Company, at their factory in Timaru and through their current work restoring the organ in St Peter's Anglican Church on Willis Street, Wellington. ($1,000). John Hargraves, Managing Director of the South Island Organ Company, will be closely involved in this component of the winner's programme.
• Travel to Europe to meet organists and view organs to give the winner a historical perspective on the organ. The Award will cover the cost of airfares and the winner will be billeted in the countries visited e.g. Belgium, France, UK ($7,000). Christopher Hainsworth, former Associate Professor of Music at Waikato University and current Organist at Beziers Cathedral, France, will be closely involved in this component of the programme. This component will come at the end of the organ tuition but the timing is flexible and need not necessarily be taken in the same calendar year as the tuition. On their return, the winner will give a recital for the Maxwell Fernie Trust at St Mary of the Angels.
• An ongoing association with St Mary of the Angels, and in particular with the Maxwell Fernie organ and the rich liturgical music maintained at this metropolitan church under the supervision of Music Director Robert Oliver.

More information and application forms can be downloaded from the following websites:

• www.nzlive.com
• www.fis.org.nz

The Maxwell Fernie Trust applied successfully to be re-registered as a charitable entity under the new legal requirements. You can now find details of the Trust on the Charities Register at www.charities.govt.nz.

The Trust's financial return for the March financial year showed a healthy, albeit still modest, balance of $38,000.

Since then the Trust funds have been lifted to just over the halfway mark. Obviously this does not allow the Trust to become fully operational but as a start, and true to its promise, the Trust has created the Maxwell Fernie Centenary Award 2010 (see above).

The Award will be funded by private funds and specific donations to the Centenary Award. The first contribution has already been received with great encouragement from the Choir of St Mary of the Angels and its Music Director, Robert Oliver.

Anyone else wishing to support the Centenary Award can make a donation either:

Thank you's go to the following inspired people who created highly successful events for the Maxwell Fernie Trust during 2009.

• On 29 March, Peter McLeavey hosted a well-attended launch of For Maxwell Fernie 1 2009 and For Maxwell Fernie 2 2009, two etchings by Wellington artist and poet Gregory O'Brien. The etchings were produced by Michael Kempson's Cicada Press at the University of New South Wales. See more at www.maxwellfernietrust.com under articles and donations
• On 19 April, Christopher Hainsworth launched his new CD, Christmas Maximus, at a wonderful organ recital at St Mary of the Angels. The CD was performed on the Fernie organ and recorded for the Maxwell Fernie Trust by David Clark with the generous support of the Catholic Foundation. The recording features Christmas music chosen and performed by Maxwell Fernie in 1974, including pieces by Guilmant, Torres, Mulet and Quef. Christopher Hainsworth completed this unique recording with a selection of pieces based on the theme of Christmas, or resonating with his adopted country of France or his roots in New Zealand
• On 19 September, the Bachoir of Wellington, directed by Stephen Rowley, presented a splendid benefit concert for the Maxwell Fernie Trust, featuring "All the B's" - Bach, Byrd, Brueckner, Brahms and Britten with organist Douglas Mews

There is a further opportunity this Christmas to buy prints of Gregory O'Brien's etchings, For Maxwell Fernie 1 2009 and For Maxwell Fernie 2 2009. The etchings, commissioned by the Trust, feature O'Brien's drawings as well as his poetry. They were inspired by the artist's experience of hearing Max at the organ and leading the choir at St Mary of the Angels on Sundays.

Prints are available from Peter McLeavey Gallery, 1st Floor, 147 Cuba Street, Wellington or from the Maxwell Fernie Trust, email: secretary

And don't miss the opportunity to buy Christopher Hainsworth's CD, Christmas Maximus, at a special discount price for Christmas. Buy one CD for $25 or three or more for $20 each. They make the perfect Christmas present!

An organ recital by Chris Hainsworth on 12 April filled St Mary of the Angels with brilliant, lively music for an audience renewing their memories of Maxwell Fernie and his contribution to St Mary's and Wellington's music.

The event organised by the Maxwell Fernie Trust marked the restoration of the organ and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary as well as contributing to the setting up of an organ scholarship.

Organ soloist, Chris Hainsworth was joined by another Max Fernie former student Roy Tankersley in reminiscences - of their first meeting at the organ with Max, of times in the choir room sampling the latest vintage, and of course their passion for music. Two others from this outstanding generation of students - Anthony Jennings and Alan James - were also quoted.

Two works on the programme were annotated 'A piece I studied with Max Fernie'. We can imagine how rich these works were for Chris Hainsworth because Max Fernie taught and played with such passion, and such musicality. I recently had an experience that made me aware of the strength of the Max Fernie-way when I was deputising at choir practise. I couldn’t quite get the result I wanted from the choir – eventually I found that a slightly wayward tempo had been engrained in them, one that allowed Max to extemporise a big climax with the organ accompaniment. The singers faithfully kept that rhythm even without Max’s organ accompaniment.

Of special interest to me were two works by J.S. Bach, a chorale prelude and Prelude and Fugue in D. I wanted to see how the newly refurbished organ would cope with the polyphony. In each of these works Bach came shining through, though personally I would have liked to hear or sing the chorale before the prelude.

The section of the programme entitled 'The Grand Master' and was a very welcome heart to the evening's music. There is a danger with such a rich resource as the music of Bach that it will be overstuffed with registration changes. If the registration is as good as this, it should be allowed to stay throughout the piece so that the natural coherence of the work can be appreciated. Conversely the changes in registration are meat and drink for nineteenth century organ music and in the several works of this vintage the organ was superlative.

Rarely heard composers included Joseph Bonnet, Theodore Dubois, Marcel Dupre, and Mel Bonis, with mention of a lineage of composers/teachers from J.S. Bach to the present, which included Dupre and Nicholas Lemans.

The programme was organised into a part one of Anniversary celebration, and part two a suite unified by the subject wine. It wasn't exactly clear how works were chosen but they were generally celebratory and showed a wide imaginative range.

Beginning the second half was a pictorial suite describing a village procession assailed by a mighty wind and storm. Only the maiden's prayer saves them, apparently. One sound in this was just like a helicopter going overhead, and another of almost achingly shrill dance pipes.

Finishing the recital, the most ambitious 'Grande Improvisation', lasted about 15 minutes. Chris Hainsworth chose the Christmas hymn 'Personent Hodie' and a contrasting Noel. It was a tour de force - registration changes, musical treatment of the themes, fanfare- like passages, and others more lyrical - plenty to marvel at and enjoy. There is a danger in transferring the occasional music of an improvised church postlude into a concert item but Hainsworth demonstrated both the strength of the Fernie legacy and his own particular skill in this final item.