When the youngest of Sherry Grant’s four children headed out the door for their first day at school, it opened another door for the musician.
"I started doing all these crazy things. I had a new lease on life, so to speak," the pianist says.
The cellist and piano player from Auckland began writing poetry and organising music and literary festivals. In 2019 alone, she organised 14 concerts and performed in 12 collaborating with poets, artists and violists.
"I like the collaborating. The ultimate goal is to create the next golden age for the world with New Zealand at the epicentre of everything. It takes a while."
She first discovered Mansfield through Chinese poet Xu Zhimo’s (1897-1931) work which mentioned the work of internationally acclaimed New Zealand modernist writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923).
"It left an impression."
About two years ago she realised it was Mansfield’s’s centenary in 2023 and a programme of events was being organised to celebrate so she did a bit more research about the author.
So Grant, who trained in Taiwan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, decided to write poetry inspired by Mansfield and put together a series of concerts inspired by the author’s work.
"I like to celebrate things. It’s all excuses. It’s exciting to bring people together and different art forms too."
Last year she celebrated the 100th anniversary of her favourite composer, Russian Alexander Scriabin, in conjunction with the Scriabin Society of America which invited her on to its executive board as international liaison.
"It’s quite unique to put so many new pieces by so many composers together. It’s very New Zealand."
"The idea for that concert came from another Grant participated in. Wellington violist Donald Maurice had commissioned Dunedin composer Anthony Ritchie to write a piece for his trio Taioro ki te Ao to the words of Māori poet Sharn Maree and invited Grant to play as pianist, and that’s how Grant met Ritchie for the first time.
"We took it to the Viola Congress in the US last year. Before that we did a world premiere in Canada in Ottawa at the National Art Gallery. That was the start of working with Anthony."
Grant thought for Mansfield’s festival she would really like to bring a lot of music into it. So on her Asian tour this year she did a "Catch 23" concert series featuring 23 New Zealand piano works, about half composed during Mansfield’s life, alongside visual arts and poetry. She has also played the concert in Wellington and Auckland and will play it in Dunedin as well.
"I chose my own programme and combined it with arts, mostly by New Zealand artists. I matched each with my own short-form poems that have been published ."
But for "Child of the Sun" she asked 12 composers to write pieces for piano and mezzo-soprano, her favourite voice style, inspired by Mansfield’s work and selected 19 pieces to perform.
The reason for choosing Dunedin for the premiere is that four of the composers come from Dunedin, including Ritchie who has been very supportive, Andrew Perkins, Peter Adams and Kenneth Young.
"I feel very honoured to have convinced all these composers to write for this project."
It has meant Romano, who seven months ago gave birth to twins, is having to learn a lot of new music in a short space of time. The concert is also the first time she has had to learn so many different songs for one concert in a long time.
"They’re very interesting. It’s been interesting to find time to learn music. It’s a challenge; you have to figure out all the different styles. Each composer has their own style," Romano says.
"This recital might be one of the most musically diverse concerts in terms of musical language that I’ve sung before which has been really interesting — seeing how different people approach western art song."
Helpfully, the composers have provided an electronic track of their pieces so Romano can rehearse to the music.
"It means I’m not going in completely cold when Sherry turns up just five days before the concert. I’ve been orienting myself in the tonal language each composer chooses to live in, some a little bit more tonal than others which is an interesting challenge."
"They have wonderful ideas. I’m really excited about this."
She is planning to also perform some piano solos by dead New Zealand composers to give Romano’s voice a break between songs and contrast with the new works.
"While an instrumentalist can keep going and going, I‘m aware it’s quite different for voice."
Romano admits it is "quite a lot of song" so she has been practising for it to require a similar stamina to a main opera role. One piece by composer Ross Carey requires some actions.
"When you sing opera and are in a lead role you’d expect to sing for quite a long time. Song concerts are usually for an hour but here we have over an hour of song compositions.
"It’s fun to train for."
Describing herself as a "more recent migrant" — Romano moved to Dunedin in 2019 from the United States to take up the role as senior lecturer and head of voice at the University of Otago — learning and reading more about Mansfield is a great opportunity.
"I’m less familiar with her writing so it has been wonderful to become more orientated with her writings through this concert and really get a feel for her style and the really interesting ways composers have interpreted her words."
Grant says she is really appreciative of Romano agreeing to do the concert given its challenges.
Another way Grant plans to promote Mansfield "to the world" is through a haiku competition. Grant says she has become "kind of famous" in the international haiku world for her work even though she has only been writing for three years. Her daughter is also an award-winning haiku poet.
"I’ve got submissions from around the world. I’ve asked people to read at least one work of Katherine Mansfield. This way people will have to read Katherine Mansfield which I’m very happy about."
She was inspired to write after her first festival in which she heard poets read their work.
"When a poem is read with your eyes or heard it is different. I’ve always loved poetry, loved reading poems. I love English. That is what I studied before I came to New Zealand."
Once she started, she could not stop. She has written just over 4000 poems but is taking a pause from writing as she is so busy with the festival and concerts.
" Poetry has always been there and for a musician to turn to poetry is very natural. I’m only writing when I have something to say."
To celebrate Mansfield she has written a new poetry book, Being Katherine, and is almost finished her next book, Meet Mansfield.
"I’m dedicating 100 poems in publication to Katherine Mansfield this year."
She discovered haiku about a month after she started writing and thought it looked like an interesting and simple form of poetry.
"It’s so short what can you do with haiku but the more I delved into it there is a whole different world. It’s not just poetry, it’s a whole way of living, living with nature."
Grant began submitting her work to haiku journals, many of which are free to read, so it felt like a big family.
"I organise workshops and events and they do attend, it’s like a family reunion."
She does many of her festivals online to keep costs down but she continues to travel around the world to play concerts in Katherine Mansfield’s name.
"It gets Katherine Mansfield’s name out there. It’s relatively easy to do concerts but it’s hard to promote them."
Grant’s concerts will be recorded and played during her online International Katherine Mansfield 100 Festival on November 17-19 which will feature various pre-recorded videos of people’s work relating to Mansfield.
"I want to get more people to become aware of the role New Zealand has played in the music and literature scene."
To see
Sherry Grant, Catch 23, Saturday 7pm and Child of the Sun with Tessa Romano, Saturday 3.30pm Marama Hall, University of Otago.
