Loving the birdsong around the Magpie House
Composer Penny Axtens
Photo:
Elif Budakli
Penny Axtens stopped composing for a while. Now she's getting back into the swing of it.
Axtens is the latest Composer-in-Residence at the "Magpie House", the former Wellington home of New Zealand pioneer composer Douglas Lilburn.
She spoke to RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump two-thirds of the way through her nine-month stint, which is funded by Creative New Zealand and Te Kōkī, New Zealand School of Music.
Axtens first came to prominence as a composer at the start of the century when she won the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/RNZ Concert Music 2000 Prize for her work "Part the Second".
Then Axtens headed north to London, followed by Berlin where she worked in the classical music recording industry: first for Decca, then Sony.
Composing took a back seat to marketing albums and promoting artists, until the Covid lockdown of 2020 gave her time and space to start writing again.
Having decided to return to New Zealand, the Lilburn Composer-in-Residence scheme has been the perfect springboard for Axtens to relaunch her composing career.
It's allowed her to write music full time, which she does on the house's piano, an instrument she adores despite it being out of tune.
Axtens also loves the house's tranquil, tree-lined setting, even though it's not far from downtown Wellington.
She says the birdsong, especially the tui, is wonderful. Axtens also takes inspiration from her frequent walks to the Wellington Botanical Gardens which are less than a kilometre away.
Axtens' time in the Magpie House finishes in December.
Lilburn's old house: plenty of birdsong.
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