Earlier this year Manu Berkeljon ‘‘cast caution to the wind’’, packed her bags and with her two small children boarded a plane for New Zealand.
‘’I think it’s the dream of so many overseas Kiwis to be able to come back.’’
While a return to her home had been percolating in her mind for a while, the logistics and implications of a move that big as a single parent had been overwhelming.
‘‘As a single parent it’s been a really big thing to make the leap. And in the end I’ve sort of really just thrown the chips in the air and hopefully something will land.’’
‘‘That’s quite a special experience really to be able to live in a small town and still have a full-time professional orchestra.’’
Despite being in such a small town, the orchestra attracted top conductors and soloists from around the world.
‘‘Playing in a chamber orchestra sometimes you get contact with visiting conductors and soloists that you wouldn’t necessarily in a large symphony. And they were also sort of so startled to find themselves in this tiny little town.’’
The orchestra was known for its versatility, performing both orchestral and chamber music concerts.
‘‘I really enjoyed it. So it was a very big decision to make the jump back here. I don’t quite know what I’ll be doing here.’’
She need not have worried as she has found the welcome to be amazing.
Since she returned in February, Berkeljon has played two concerts with the New Zealand String Quartet (NZSQ) for the Aotearoa Festival of the Arts in Wellington. She is also about to embark on a tour of the South Island with the quartet alongside Lavinnia Rae — an early-career cellist and permanent members second violinist Peter Clark and violist Gillian Ansell.
‘‘It’s been such an amazing welcome to be invited to play for the New Zealand String Quartet the moment I walk through the door back here. So, I’m very, very honoured and grateful for that.’’
Her worries about having an idealistic view of New Zealand from her childhood — she grew up on the South Island’s West Coast — that might not exist anymore have since dissipated.
‘‘I was a bit worried that perhaps those ideals and community had perhaps changed. But getting back, actually, the network feels so strong and the welcome feels so strong. It’s just like coming back into a warm bath, really, in a way. The openness that we’ve been met with by everyone has been really fantastic.’’
The move also feels like coming a full circle for her family as her parents emigrated from South Africa wanting a better life for their children.
‘‘I’m coming back with that same vision going, yes everything they hoped for still rings true. They found exactly the life that they had hoped for and sort of longed for in New Zealand.’’
Her son is now 20 months old and is happy wherever they are but her daughter, who has just turned 6, has been more impacted.
‘‘Leaving everything she knew and coming here was exciting, but also a big adjustment.’’
Her daughter was born during Covid, so spent her early years at home with three adults so speaks English and Swedish fluently.
‘‘I tried very hard to read books and sing songs to her in Swedish and so on, but it was difficult when all the adult conversation is English.’’
The tour will be like a homecoming for Berkeljon and she is looking forward to seeing parts of New Zealand she has not seen for many years.
She was last in New Zealand in 2018, on a national tour including Dunedin with fellow Swedish-based New Zealand musician Anna McGregor plus Finnish pianist Taru Kurki in the Klara Kollektiv. Berkeljon and McGregor also toured in 2014 with the Dalecarlia Clarinet Quintet.
In both tours they performed a variety of New Zealand works including pieces by Dunedin’s Anthony Ritchie.
‘‘It was really special to be able to have that connection and we even, in Sweden, played a composer portrait concert of Anthony Ritchie. He has written a number of works for us, which we played. He wrote a violin sonata for me, which I have played in Norway, which was really special because the fiords and so on there are so similar.’’
She and McGregor recorded works from those tours with Fjarran winning the New Zealand Music Award for classical album of the year, and another album Nara short-listed for the same award.
In the upcoming tour with the NZSQ, she will be performing a couple of different programmes. In Dunedin the NZSQ will perform Benjamin Britten’s 1st string quartet, in honour of the composer’s jubilee year.
‘‘It’s such a magnificent work and I think Britten is so relevant today. He was a pacifist and felt quite isolated and outside of what was happening in the world in his early days, especially when this quartet was written in 1941.’’
While pacifism is a more recognised standpoint in today’s world, the themes of loneliness and isolation are just as relevant today, she says.
‘‘That was quite amazing when the string quartet did approach me to come and play, because I’ve played them as well. And we did the entire album by the Danish String Quartet, Last Leaf, which is all arrangements of Scandinavian folk tunes.
‘‘So, it was quite amazing that coming back in my first concert here was actually, sort of felt really linked to my life in Sweden.’’
For now Berkeljon is based in Christchurch and hoping to do some teaching and more further performing.
‘‘So, now it’s lovely to be able to come back with the whole family and to let my children grow up here.’’
The family had their first journey back to the West Coast and her old home town of Greymouth since they returned recently.
‘‘Driving across Arthur’s Pass and getting to the beech forest and suddenly it felt like absolutely 100% home, it was really special.’’
TO SEE
New Zealand String Quartet presents: Origins, Orokonui Ecosanctuary, May 10, 5pm — 7pm;
New Zealand String Quartet presents: Anthology, The Grainstore Gallery, Oamaru May 9, 8pm and The Lodge, Arrowtown Lifestyle Village, May 11, 8.30pm
