Psathas & Kiri

NZ composer John Psathas and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa provided some of the high points at Manchester’s eclectic “Pulse Festival.” The concert was the climax to a six month exploration of Commonwealth arts entitled “Spirit of Friendship,” which merged classical, jazz and world music. Psathas’ “colourful concerto for percussion, piano and orchestra” formed the evening’s centerpiece, while Dame Kiri’s encore of an unaccompanied Maori song “clearly touched a chord in the large audience …”