On The Up: ‘It gave me the best start': How Whanganui shaped pianist Liam Wooding's career

NZ Herald

15-05-2025

Wooding (Atihaunui a Pāpārangi) now bases himself in Perth but is back in New Zealand this month for a series of concerts, including one at Whanganui's Sarjeant Gallery.
'My connection to Whanganui is really important and something I'm going to grow as I become a more established professional,' he says.
That journey began back as a pupil at Westmere School.
'My first primary school teacher was my piano teacher for eight years.
'I was just following a thread, really.'
The thread took him to Whanganui High School, University of Waikato, the Australian National Academy of Music and a Fulbright scholarship in the United States.
Now he performs professionally as a soloist, chamber music partner, accompanist and as part of the Morton Trio.
'It's never with the mindset of, well, I'm going to make money out of it and become a professional, because it's hard to know what that looks like, especially when no one else in Whanganui is doing that,' Wooding says.
Five years into a professional career, he feels established.
'Now I think it's time to be more selective about what I focus on and try to build something more substantial.'
This age, where artists can have a more direct relationship with the audience, is something Wooding wants to explore.
'I'm not really the 1950s concert pianist, you know, flying around playing concertos.
'My work involves a lot of people, it's very collaborative. Even if I do a solo concert, it kind of takes a team to make that happen.'
Wooding's ability to do this was forged by the countless opportunities afforded him in Whanganui.
Whether that was playing chamber music, accompanying the Whanganui Lyric Singers, Amdram, High School choirs – his experience was broad.
'In hindsight, it gave me the best start ever,' he says.
'I didn't necessarily have the best nuts and bolts technical start, but I had access to opportunities that so many other people didn't have.
'By the time I got to university, I was pretty proficient in areas that lots of others weren't.
'I think a stumbling block for a lot of famed pianists is that they don't have the skills to be able to do that.
'They train to be a pianist, they don't know how to apply it to the world.'
Part of that is connecting new people to classical music.
'I think especially since Covid, it's changed, and it's a hard sell.'
A culture that is all about 'optimisation' and people 'doing things to make themselves better or at least survive' doesn't necessarily align with something 'seemingly [as] useless as classical music'.
'Even though, of course, I don't agree with that.
'[It's] a leisure activity that promotes life-long learning, which I know is a value for a lot of middle-class professionals.
'There's always something surprising and edifying about going to a concert and witnessing the mastery of a performer. It's something I think people can appreciate, if not necessarily the music.
'If we're to try and get younger people to become interested, it's about tapping into those sorts of things.'
Wooding remembers it was French music that first resonated with him, and early 20th-century music in general.
'I often found different styles of music quite inspiring for its inventiveness and – I know it's kind of obvious – how I felt it tapped into feeling and emotion as a sensory kind of thing, and a communal kind of thing.
'It kind of pointed to a whole world that I knew was going to be bigger than what I grew up with in Springvale.'
Wooding will perform alongside flautist Hannah Darroch in their show, Home for the Winter, at the Sarjeant Gallery on Saturday.
The duo will showcase music by local legends Gillian Whitehead and Jasmine Lovell-Smith, well-known flute works by Dutilleux and Copland, and the New Zealand premiere of a new flute sonata by Australian composer Lachlan Skipworth.
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'We're kind of bringing our two respective interests together,' Wooding says.
He is also keen to see how the newly redeveloped Sarjeant Gallery works as a venue.
'I've had an international life, still do, and I'm attracted by what the community in Whanganui is trying to do with the Sarjeant Gallery, trying to further modernise the city.
'Having me and my mate come in there to do a show, it kind of accords with all that is going on there.
'I owe a lot to the community in Whanganui that raised me, but I don't come back out of a sense of repayment.
'It's important for me to be in touch with all those people because they're important to me.'
When: Saturday, May 17, doors open 6.30pm, performance begins 7pm.
Where: Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery.
Tickets are $35 and can be purchased from the shop at Sarjeant.org.nz, by visiting the gallery, or call 06 349 0506.