William Dart

MMus (Hons), PhD (Auck), MNZM
Senior Lecturer

William is prominent as a broadcaster, editor, publisher and journalist.

His fortnightly series New Horizons on Concert FM has presented innovations in popular music to a more classically inclined audience for over 25 years, and he is a regular presenter on such series as Composer of the Week, Appointment as well as New Music Survey, which focuses on contemporary New Zealand music. Early this year, two of his 2004 Composer of the Week talks ("Landscape and the New Zealand Composer" and "The Piano Music of Schubert") were amongst ten selected for repeat broadcast over the summer months.

As editor of the quarterly Music in New Zealand he has established a journal noted for the wide range of its coverage of musical styles.

He has also edited Art New Zealand, the country's premier art magazine, for 23 years.

In 1997 William received an MNZM for services to the arts and music in New Zealand, and he was also awarded a CANZ citation in 1993. Late last year he was on the selection panel for the 2004 Arts Foundation Laureate Awards.

Active as a pianist and composer as time allows, he has scored successes with music written for theatre pieces such as Songs to the Judges, in collaboration with the late Mervyn Thompson. In 2001 he was involved in a presentation on this show for the Wellington City Art GalleryÕs exhibition Parihaka: The Art of Passive Resistance.

William has been classical music critic for the New Zealand Herald since 2002, and was a regular contributor to the New Zealand Listener between 1977 and 2002.

William teaches in the Department's History, Theatre Music and New Zealand Music courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

wdart@waikato.ac.nz