Moth Quartet, formed in 2023, is a string quartet of composers — Tristan Carter (violin), Salina Fisher (violin), Elliot Vaughan (viola), and Nicholas Denton Protsack (cello). Each has a unique, vital solo practice, and the collective is an indispensable force in Aotearoa’s musical landscape. Their disciplined improvisations and co-composition can be heard in their debut album Scree Scrub Mountain Sky (Whatnot, 2024), with the follow up, TUNDRA due for release this year.
A Moth Quartet performance is a unique musical experience, a journey through unexpected universes, presented through untethered abandon meticulously constructed. This concert, you will hear the quartet first in the natural acoustic of Toi MAHARA, then gently amplified, revealing subtleties and creating an immersive bath of texture and beauty. “They take to the stage sans music stands and scores and what follows is a revelation” (SOUNZ)
Tickets are $25/pp. Bar and snacks available onsite. Drop into the gallery, book tickets here or buy tickets on the door.
Brought to you in partnership with Mostly Music, this live music event will take place in Te Manawa Toi | Coastlands Gallery as a seated concert with General Admission.
About Moth Quartet Members
Tristan Carter is a Wellington based violinist, composer and field recordist. Alongside session work and free improvisation he plays in a variety of ensembles including jazz band The Troubles, The Noveltones, Indian/Jazz crossover project Shades of Shakti, Balkan band Bazurka, and Paul Bosauder’s Tierra y Mar Flamenco Project. He is a popular collaborator for theatre, dance and film/TV in New Zealand, with recent projects including featuring on the David Long’s soundtrack to the BBC Series The Luminaries, performing the live score and foley for Trick of the Light Theatre’s ‘The Griegol’, and playing in the live band for Agaram Productions’ ‘The Mourning After’. Since 2015 he has worked as a composer and performer with Java Dance Theatre, directed by Sacha Copland, touring New Zealand extensively as well as performing in arts festivals in Australia, China and the Edinburgh Fringe.
Salina Fisher (b.1993) is an award-winning New Zealand composer whose works are frequently performed worldwide. Drawing from her background as a multi-instrumentalist of mixed Japanese heritage, her highly evocative music often involves collaborations, notably with taonga pūoro practitioners. Her works have been programmed by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, Tanglewood Music Festival, Helsinki Philharmonic, A Far Cry, Brodsky Quartet, and Symphony Orchestras of Seattle, Atlanta, Dallas, Melbourne, and Shanghai, including with conductors Gemma New and Tianyi Lu. She became the youngest-ever recipient of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award in 2016 and 2017, and has received awards from Fulbright, The Arts Foundation, Creative NZ, and CANZ. She is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music, New York, and New Zealand School of Music – Te Kōkī, Victoria University of Wellington, where she was appointed Composer-in-Residence 2019–2020 and Teaching Fellow in Composition.
Elliot Vaughan is a composer, performer, and artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa. His output includes exploratory concert music, composed theatre, pop songs, performance art, and contributions to collaborative projects. He was the 2024 CNZ/NZSM Composer-in-Residence. For fifteen years he lived in Vancouver, where he completed a BFA at SFU School for the Contemporary Arts and made his living freelancing. His career there extended from arrangements for theatre and pop records to music for dance and contemporary classical composition. Returning to Aotearoa in 2018 to earn his MMus at Te Kōkī — New Zealand School of Music, Elliot has established himself as a key voice in exploratory composition and performance here. His blurring of performance art and music has been recognised with awards and commissions, including for his shows First Buzzard at the Body (2021) and Fish in Pink Gelatine (2019). As well as the Moth Quartet, Elliot has a pop band, Eigenface.
BMI Award-winning composer and cellist, Nicholas Denton Protsack, strives to find new connections between music and the natural world. Called a “(composer) to keep a close eye on” by the Canadian Music Centre, Nicholas’ music frequently explores and blends notated mediums, recorded mediums, and experimental improvisations. His works have been performed internationally, including frequent performances in North America, Europe, and New Zealand. Recently, Nicholas has been awarded both a first and second prize in the 2023 SOCAN Foundation Young Composers Awards. He has also completed recent commissions for organisations including Stroma Ensemble, the Toronto Summer Music Festival, and the American Prize-winning Ensemble for These Times (E4TT). Nicholas’ projects as a cellist are often collaborative in nature, and span both contemporary classical and experimental idioms. He is a founding member of Moth Quartet in New Zealand as well as the Canadian-based groups Branchroot Ensemble and Sounds Like Things.
With thanks to support from Kāpiti Coast District Council and Creative Communities.
Find out more
Listen to “A Low Glow” from Scree Scrub Mountain Sky