19 May 2025
Luka Venter’s composition glacier is inspired by real glaciers, monumental compositions of snowflakes and time. The work is part of their ongoing exploration of weaving ecological source material into music.
The piece has been composed during Luka’s time as Composer in Residence for the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, which was supported by the Early Career Fund. The premiere performance is in July 2025.
Luka is working against the Romantic tradition and anthropocentric perspective that is often associated with art inspired by the natural world.
“With the climate crisis, doing something with that Romantic approach felt the opposite of what I wanted. I wanted to write something [to convey] the kind of life force of the natural world, and the non-human agency of it,” Luka says.
Coincidentally, 2025 is UNESCO Year of Glacier Preservation. Luka’s research for the piece included a visit to Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere (Franz Josef glacier) on the West Coast and Rob Roy, above the Matukituki valley in the Southern Alps. Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere is in retreat and Roby Roy is now a hanging glacier.
“I wanted to look at, on a granular level, the science of what a glacier is and how they work. A glacier begins as thousands of snowflakes that fall onto each other. These compress, and then compact into ice over thousands of years, so that you get fresh, new layers of ice close to the surface but then also incredibly ancient layers of ice below."
That idea of so many hexagonal snowflakes being compressed into something different led Luka to forming the piece around subdivisions of nine. They wanted to capture the idea of each snowflake being squashed and spread.
“The whole form of the piece is subdivisions of nine, the phrases, the harmonic material. I wanted to find a thread and just weave everything from the glacier outwards, rather than from myself.”
“Ice is compressed in a glacier. Eventually, that compression squeezes out oxygen, leading to that vivid blue ice we know and love. There are lots of ways in which the musical material mimics those processes. The approach to orchestral colour in general is a direct response to these processes: reams of string harmonics, vivid microtonal writing for the horns and so many other things.”
“But a crucial part is in the centre of the piece, where we metaphorically sink deep into ancient layers of ice, and as we slip into this broad, geological time-scale, we hear a trio of flutes viscerally overblowing into harmonics, so that you can almost hear the ice squeezing itself into those intense, luminous blues.”
While Luka is also a conductor, visiting Canadian Adam Johnson will conduct the piece for the premiere performance by the NZSO National Youth Orchestra in July. The process of handing a piece over is something Luka became familiar with when they did their Master of Arts in Opera Making and Writing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
“It's a process of being clear and rigorous in how you write the piece. You try to hear it as vividly and in as much detail as you can internally. And then find the clearest way of communicating that in notation. That's really hard, but if you do it well, then there aren't any worries,” Luka says.
As for the young musicians who will play the piece, Luka sought advice from his composer mentor Eve de Castro Robinson about finding the balance between a piece that was achievable for early career performers and would push them – in a healthy way.
Luka’s career development as a composer/conductor is relatively uncommon in Aotearoa. Their idols include Pierre Boulez and George Benjamin. They note, somewhat ruefully, the dominance of male role-models in that particular field internationally.
The 2024 Conducting Fellowship with the NZSO was a boost to this aspect of Luka’s career, with mentorship from Hamish McKeich and James Judd and guest conductors. Luka was also part of the inaugural Conducting Fellowship with the NZSO in 2020-21.
In July, they travel to the Mondego International Music Academy in Portugal as one of four selected composers – but organisers have supported their dual practice with an invitation to attend seminars as well.
From there, Luka travels to the United States for a New Music Conductor Fellowship, offered by the Composers Conference, where they’ll work with Ensemble Conductor and Conference Music Director Vimbayi Kaziboni.
May is Music Month and Creative New Zealand is marking it with music stories on our website every week.
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