ProfessorMark Menzies

I am an active performer on the violin, viola, piano, and as a conductor – being particularly well known for my career as an advocate for music recently composed, and music written in Aotearoa. My career has a world-wide reach, and includes as a member of the Los Angeles-based string quartet, the Formalist Quartet.
I am also a composer of music, inspired to write for a wide range of performance circumstances – ranging from concert orchestral music to my own form of theatrical music.
Though not a primary focus of my research, I enjoy writing about music, and contemporary composers in particular. Most recently, for example, I have published an article about the unique form of a trail-blazing solo viola composition from the 1970s – "Prologue" by Gérard Grisey, from his evening-long composition Les Espaces Acoustique.
Teaching is of great significance to the way I function as an artist, and it is through and with the wonderful community of musicians we have at, and surrounding, the University of Canterbury, that I happily balance the exploration of traditional classical music, contemporary expressions of music, and non-Western traditions alike.