It is a pleasure to announce that Al Fraser will be taking up our Spring Artist Residency, during which time he will build relationships with taonga pūoro artists residing in Tāmaki, as well as exploring the use of taonga pūoro as a midi controller.

Alistair Fraser (Pākehā) is a manu whakatangitangia ngā taonga pūoro, a player, composer, maker and researcher of ngā taonga pūoro who has been making, performing and composing with these musical instruments since 1999. In 2022 he released ‘Mahurangi’, an album with Riki Pirihi Gooch, the follow up to their first album ‘Rangatira’ and co-composed the octaphonic installation ‘Te Wheke’ with Ruby Solly. In 2021 Alistair released ‘Bird Like Men’ with ensemble Tararua, collaborated with visual artist Bridget Reweti with ‘Like a rock against the tide’, co-curated ‘Pūoro Tū’ with Ruby Solly,Aotearoa’s first taonga pūoro festival, completed a NZ wide tour of ‘Silver Stone Wood Bone’ with Bridget Douglas through CMNZ and collaborated with Good Company Dance’s on their work ‘OneOne.

Alistair has elegantly woven taonga pūoro into many projects through collaborations with Ōrotokare, NZSO, Ōkareka, Good Company Arts, Lou PōtikiBryant, Lemi Ponifasio, and visual artist Joe Michael for Voices For The Future, NYC United Nations Building with music by Rhian Sheehan and Brian Eno in 2019..

Since 2018 Alistair has released ten solo and collaborative albums through Oro Records, Rattle Records, and Noa Records.

Alistair was a researcher for Hokotehi Moriori Trust and Otago University from 2017-2020, researching Moriori musical instrument culture. Alistair has completed two research trips to the United Kingdom and Ireland to investigate taonga pūoro held in collections there, one in 2015 and one in 2016 as a Churchill Fellow.