Whether playing or composing, Isaac Shatford is in his element. The promising young musician tells Rebecca Fox about his musical journey so far.
When Isaac Shatford goes to see a Dunedin secondary schools' drama production next month, he will not be an ordinary audience member.
Shatford wrote the music for the play, Suspect: A Murder Mystery Musical, being performed by St Hilda's Collegiate and John McGlashan pupils, while he was a pupil at St Andrew's College, in Christchurch.
Now a second-year student at the University of Otago, studying composition and performance violin, he had thought that part of his life was over.
"It'll be really awesome to see it again. It'll be wonderful to see how they do it.''
Shatford (19) wrote the music for the play after his school thought it would be a good exercise for him.
"It was a bit daunting but the more I thought about it, it was definitely possible. It was a lot of work but it was fantastic to get it done.''
He got together with a group of actors and writers from school and they came up with a storyline - a murder mystery - that worked "really well'' for the stage.
"I started writing the music and collaborated on the lyrics.''
The process took nine months and to see it come to the stage was fantastic, he said.
"It was a wonderful experience I'll never forget.''
The head of music at his old school, Duncan Ferguson, has been quoted on the school's website as saying Shatford is a "musical prodigy, a stunning musician''.
"I've never known a student who was able to produce this amount of work to this quality ever before.''
However, Shatford did not expect to experience it all over again with the play being restaged in Dunedin.
St Hilda's arts co-ordinator Barbara Power said on learning the back story to Suspect from a teacher at St Andrew's the school was inspired, as an educator, to take on Shatford's work, as the opportunity to support a pupil and his work was really appealing.
"The idea of performing an unknown piece was also a challenge we thought our talented cast were up to.
"Usually there is a well-known 'formula' with each production, but this enabled us to take a script and devise our own interpretation, focusing on the talents of our cast.''
The characters were wonderfully quirky and the crew was enjoying the "wonderful'' music, she said.
Shatford has always been interested in music, playing the violin from a young age, but the idea of composing music only popped into his head during NCEA exam study. An NCEA study requirement to compose music opened his eyes to another musical avenue.
"I was about 15-ish when I started to really like composition - when it became not just an assignment.''
So when the time came to go to university he chose Otago's music department, where he studies composition and violin.
"I do love the music department here. It's so great to work with inspiring people and it's a wonderful city to study in.''
Shatford studies under Prof Anthony Ritchie, who described him as one of New Zealand's most promising young composers.
"Being an excellent violinist, he has an innate feel for how to write for instruments, as when the NZTrio played a work of his last year in the Lilburn Competition. His music is generous and colourful, expressive but also technically assured.''
He also likes writing in different styles, which is encouraged at Otago, and has been song-writing.
"And, of course, he has written a school show which we are looking forward to.''
He was one of 10 winners of the inaugural New Zealand Trio Composing Competition last year for his work Aeroplanes over Aotearoa, a piece inspired by the works of Douglas Lilburn.
The New Zealand Secondary Schools Symphony Orchestra also commissioned a piece: Sunset Overture. The piece was conducted by Peter Adams earlier this year.
His piece for a string quartet, Frost and Fire, won him the composer award at the New Zealand Chamber Music Contest and was recorded by Radio New Zealand's Concert Programme.
Shatford said it was "wonderful'' to see each piece come alive when played.
The process of composing could be fraught, as there was a fine balance between planning the work and allowing the unexpected to happen.
"You need to be quite methodical but also to lose your inhibitions and allow your creative juices to flow.''
He did most of his composing the old-fashioned way - on paper - only putting his final draft into the computer.
"Everyone is different in how they do it.''
Ask him to choose between performance and composing and he is reluctant to do so.
With performing there was a lot of pressure to "get it right in the moment'' while with composition a work developed over time, "so it ends up the way you want it to''.
"I absolutely love performing. Partly because I've grown up with it. It is a thrill to play, a joy to perform to other people.''
Whichever skill he was working at, he had been very determined from a young age to become good at it.
As to what will come next, he does not know.
"I'm just enjoying the ride doing something I love.''
He will possibly look to study overseas when he completes his degree at Otago and knows whatever happens, his career will involve music in some shape or form.
