11 hours ago
Priorities & cultural loves of new Creative New Zealand boss
culture arts 12:16 pm today
Gretchen La Roche is a few weeks into the role of CEO of Creative New Zealand, our national arts funding, development and advocacy organisation. She took over after the opening of the new Otautahi venue for our largest theatre company The Court Theatre, where she was briefly Chief Executive. Born and raised in Te Tairawhiti Gisborne, she was for many years Principal Clarinettist with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. After an initial stint at CNZ, she returned to the orchestra as artistic manager and then CEO for 10 years, seeing the organsation through the years after the Christchurch earthquakes. La Roche has a long history of advocacy of artists and as a musician also commissioned many new works. She joins Culture 101 for Fast Favourites. These include The Big Sing, Mokotron, Tiki Taane with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and Taane's current tour with Kereama Taepa and Chamber Music New Zealand. A current favourite book is The Sound of Utopia, Musicians in the Time of Stalin by Michel Krielaars. It speaks, she says, to the important contentious role of the artist as well as her love of the Russian composers.
