A Brief Biography of Gareth Farr's Life
Gareth Farr 1. Brief Biography of His Life:
a. Gareth Farr was born on the 29th of February 1968 in Wellington. As a child he was extremely responsive to pitched noises (indicating his musicality). He used to spend hours at a time sitting in front of the washing machine listening to the noises it made. The “agitator” in particular fascinated him because of the whirring noise it produced with a variance in pitch. From a very young age he used to walk over to people’s houses and say “can I listen to your agitator”. The statement attracted many different responses although in general people were rather bewildered by a child of only 2 or 3 years old saying such a thing. b. Gareth Farr began his musical studies at primary school beginning by learning the piano. He played pieces mostly of the classical, baroque and romantic genre e.g. Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Beethoven etc. His piano teacher quickly realised his musicality but also noticed the Gareth used to come to his weekly piano lessons completely unprepared. He used to practice for a few minutes before his weekly piano lessons. He was almost completely disinterested in the music he played, practicing was a chore. His teacher thought that perhaps he didn’t enjoy practicing because the music he played didn’t interest him. One day he sent Gareth home with a vinyl record of a modern serialistic piece. The clashes and dissonance of the piece, the ‘ugly’ cluster chords and screeching sound effects astonished Gareth. He listened to the record hundreds of times; it was scratched in the places where he listened to it most. It was from this piece of music that his life as a composer spurred from.
Gareth Farr began his studies at the University of Auckland. He studied in composition, orchestration and electronic music. As a job he also performed in the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra. Farr was a capable musician and was always available and keen to play new works by other composers. He returned to further his
a. Gareth Farr was born on the 29th of February 1968 in Wellington. As a child he was extremely responsive to pitched noises (indicating his musicality). He used to spend hours at a time sitting in front of the washing machine listening to the noises it made. The “agitator” in particular fascinated him because of the whirring noise it produced with a variance in pitch. From a very young age he used to walk over to people’s houses and say “can I listen to your agitator”. The statement attracted many different responses although in general people were rather bewildered by a child of only 2 or 3 years old saying such a thing. b. Gareth Farr began his musical studies at primary school beginning by learning the piano. He played pieces mostly of the classical, baroque and romantic genre e.g. Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Beethoven etc. His piano teacher quickly realised his musicality but also noticed the Gareth used to come to his weekly piano lessons completely unprepared. He used to practice for a few minutes before his weekly piano lessons. He was almost completely disinterested in the music he played, practicing was a chore. His teacher thought that perhaps he didn’t enjoy practicing because the music he played didn’t interest him. One day he sent Gareth home with a vinyl record of a modern serialistic piece. The clashes and dissonance of the piece, the ‘ugly’ cluster chords and screeching sound effects astonished Gareth. He listened to the record hundreds of times; it was scratched in the places where he listened to it most. It was from this piece of music that his life as a composer spurred from.
Gareth Farr began his studies at the University of Auckland. He studied in composition, orchestration and electronic music. As a job he also performed in the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra. Farr was a capable musician and was always available and keen to play new works by other composers. He returned to further his