Michael Norris

Michael Norris (b. 1973) is a Wellington-based composer, software programmer and music theorist. He holds composition degrees from Victoria University of Wellington and City University, London, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Composition at the New Zealand School of Music (Te Kōkī) at Victoria University of Wellington. He held the Mozart Fellowship in 2001, and was awarded the Douglas Lilburn Prize in 2003 and the CANZ Trust Fund Award in 2012. He has also been nominated for the SOUNZ Contemporary Award seven times, winning it four times for his works Inner Phases for string quartet and Chinese instrument ensemble, Sygyt for throatsinger, ensemble and live electronics, Violin Concerto ‘Sama’, and Mātauranga (Rerenga) for taonga puoro, orchestra and live electronics.

He has participated in composition courses featuring leading composers such as Peter Eötvös, Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff and Kaija Saariaho, and has had performances from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Roberto Fabbriciani, Michael Houstoun, the New Zealand String Quartet, NZTrio, Richard Haynes, the Viennese Saxophonic Orchestra, Ensemble Offspring, Stroma, the Israel Contemporary Players and the Ensemble Pierrot Lunaire Wien.

In 2010, he was commissioned by the SWR (Sudwestdeutsche Rundfunk) to write a new chamber orchestra work, Sgraffito, which was premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2010 by the Radio Chamber Orchestra Hilversum, conducted by Peter Eötvös, and was reviewed by Die Zeit as one of the highlights of the festival.

Michael is also co-founder and co-director of Stroma New Music Ensemble, and has collaborated with a number of other artists including Daniel Belton and Ashley Brown. He is coordinator of the Creative New Zealand/NZSM Composer-in-Residence, serves on the boards of the Lilburn Residence Trust and Stroma New Music Trust, and is the Editor of Wai-te-ata Music Press.

Michael’s programming work is also internationally renowned. His ‘SoundMagic Spectral’ suite of real-time FFT-based audio effects have been used extensively in both industry and academia worldwide, including by artists such as Aphex Twin and Brian Eno.