Biography

Jack Body's music covers most genres, including solo and chamber music, orchestral music, music-theatre, music for dance and film as well as electroacoustic music. His music has been performed and broadcast widely in both New Zealand and overseas. He has worked with the renowned Kronos Quartet on four separate projects. He has also worked in experimental photography and computer-controlled sound-image installations, having received commissions from several public galleries. A fascination with the music and cultures of Asia, particularly Indonesia, has been a strong influence on his music. As an ethnomusicologist his published recordings include music from Indonesia and China.

Jack Body was born in Te Aroha and studied at Auckland University, with further experience in Cologne and at the Institute of Sonology, Utrecht in the Netherlands.. During 1976-77 he was a guest lecturer at the Akademi Musik Indonesia, Yogyakarta, and since 1980 he has lectured at the School of Music, Victoria University of Wellington.

As an ethnomusicologist, his published recordings include music from Indonesia and China - a set of four CDs, South of the Clouds, features field recordings of pioneer Chinese researcher Zhang Xingrong.

He has been commissioned by the NZ String Quartet, the NZ Symphony Orchestra, and many other groups, and has written three works for the Kronos Quartet. Jack Body's opera Alley, based on the life of Rewi Alley, was premiered to wide acclaim at the 1998 NZ International Festival of the Arts. In 2003 he was a featured composer at the Other Minds Festival'in San Francisco, and in 2004 he was honoured by a Composer Portrait concert in the NZ International Festival. Most recently he was commissioned by the Atlas Ensemble (resident ensemble in the 2004 Holland Festival), and was a guest of the Encuentros 2004 International Festival in Buenos Aires.

Jack Body has been an energetic promoter of New Zealand music, beginning with the early Sonic Circus in Wellington in the 1960s, up to New Music New Zealand at the Ijsbreker in Amsterdam in 2001. He has been the editor of Waiteata Music Press since 1980, publishing scores of New Zealand music, and has produced over eighteen CDs of music by New Zealand composers.

In 2005 Jack had compositions included in New Music Works at the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum collaborative programme of events performed on what has been declared New Zealand Day, and had his work Three Transcriptions performed on New Zealand Day at the 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan.

Jack was the Artistic Director of the 2007 Asia Pacific Festival in Wellington, and attended two festivals where his music was performed: a new music festival in Phnom Penh, and at the ACL/ISCM Festival in Hong Kong. Also in 2007, Jack was the first composer to collaborate with The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, The Film Commission, Park Road Post Production and Radio New Zealand to produce a one film score each year. Jack's work is featured on Vincent Ward's film Rain of the Children.

In February 2010, Jack was the second Virtual Composer in Residence in the programme created by IAMIC to allow composers a share their work with a world-wide community through a virtual and interactive community.

Jack Body became an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (OMNZ) in the 2001 New Year's Honours list in acknowledgement of his services to music and photography. He received an Arts Foundation Laureate Award in 2004.