Gary Daverne

Gary Michiel Daverne (born 1939) is a New Zealand musical arranger, composer, conductor, director and producer.

Daverne was born in 1939 in Auckland, New Zealand and was educated at Auckland University and Auckland Teachers Training College.

He started his musical career in brass bands as a euphonium player, later changing to clarinet, playing in symphony orchestras, jazz combos and top New Zealand rock bands during the 1960s.

He started playing piano seriously at age 21 and became a top line jazz and rock/pop pianist.

He also doubled on alto and tenor saxophones.

He moved to London in the late 1960s and studied musical composition and conducting, achieving a Fellowship at Trinity College.

Upon his return to New Zealand Daverne worked for Television New Zealand as a highly regarded music director, arranger and conductor on many top television shows.

Viscount Productions was established by Daverne in 1961 as a publishing house and a parent company for Viscount Records.

He held the position of Music Director/Conductor of the Auckland Symphony Orchestra from its formation in 1975 until 2010 when, on retiring, he was appointed Music Director Emeritus.

Daverne has also composed music for symphony orchestras, brass and military bands, children's songs and musicals with more than 500 television and radio advertising jingles, film soundtracks and pop songs.

Daverne is New Zealand's most prolific composer and arranger of music for the accordion.

As a music producer Daverne has released over forty albums achieving one Platinum and two Gold records.

Since his retirement from the Auckland Symphony directorship position, he has gone back to his pop and rock 'n' roll roots as a record producer, digitally re-mastering, mainly for internet re-release on his Viscount label, archive recordings that he produced in his earlier years, along with producing new recording projects.

He is still actively involved as a guest conductor with orchestras and as a musical arranger and composer.

He founded the Auckland Symphony Orchestra in 1975 and was resident conductor/music director until 2010 when he was appointed Music Director Emeritus.

He was appointed music director for the 1975 New Zealand Waitangi Day Celebrations, attended by Her Majesty the Queen of New Zealand and other members of the British Royal Family.

Daverne is notable for being probably the only civilian in recent history to musically direct a Royal occasion, conducting the Royal New Zealand Navy Band, without a commission.

Daverne is a qualified Secondary School teacher in economics, accounting and music and was Head of Department of commerce at Glendowie College.

In 1978 he was selected by the New Zealand Education Department as "Composer in Schools", an appointment that he held for two years.

During this time he composed many songs and musicals for children which have remained popular and are still regularly performed.

Musicals include Cats of Ponsonby, Tales of Panapa, Young Mozart, Tiddalik The Frog, The Brothers Three and Robyn Hood: Outlaw Princess.

He was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1996.

In 1997 he was the musical director for the Military Tattoo held in New Plymouth.

This event had a total participating cast of over 1500 including the Army, Royal New Zealand Navy and Royal New Zealand Air Force and Artillery Bands, orchestra, 300-voice choir and 160 Pipes and Drums including the Band of The Black Watch Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Daverne has conducted many major orchestras around the world including London's Royal Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony, the Taiwan Symphony, Moravian Philharmonic-Czech Republic, the National Symphony Orchestra of Malaysia and the Turkish State Orchestras of Istanbul, Bursa and Adana.

In 2002 he became the first New Zealander to be invited to conduct in South Korea.

In 2005 and 2008 he conducted concerts with the Moravian Philharmonic and Czech Republic Orchestras in a programme of his original music and film scores.

2007 saw Daverne conducting the Auckland Symphony Orchestra on a tour of China, playing to large audiences in Beijing, Shanghai and Shi Jia Zhuang.

The Shanghai concert was televised during prime time to an estimated audience of 143 million.

Daverne is New Zealand's most prolific and successful composer and arranger of music for the accordion.

His arrangements and compositions for solo accordion and accordion orchestras are used extensively around the world.

In the 2009 Coupe Mondiale World Accordion Championships Daverne conducted the world premiere of his commissioned composition Auckland March, performed by the World Accordion Orchestra III, 147 accordions representing 12 nationalities.

During the 2014/15 period, Gary was musical director for three highly successful children’s musicals at the Glen Eden Playhouse Theatre in Auckland.

Two of these musicals: Robyn Hood – Outlaw Princess (words by John Reynolds) and Cats of Ponsonby (words and story by Ray Prowse), Gary had composed the music for some 40 years ago but had recently revised and updated.

The third show was The Rockin’ Tale of Snow White.

In June 2015 he released his first book, From the Podium, sharing tales from his life of forty years conducting orchestras and choirs around the world.

See http://www.garydaverne.gen.nz for details.

In June 2015 he released his first book, From the Podium, sharing tales from his life of forty years conducting orchestras and choirs around the world.

Orchestral compositions include :

Other recent compositions by Gary include: Auckland March, Silver Fern March, 2nd Rhapsody for Solo Accordion and Orchestra and Dardanelle, a major work for orchestra and choir commissioned in 2016 by Turkey for their 100-year Gallipoli centenary.