ABOUT
ROSS HILL
Ross started playing guitar in 1977, at the age 15. During
the first ten years of playing he experimented with a wide
range of influences and styles. These included school rock
bands, classical guitar tuition, a song writing partnership
with Auckland songstress Karen Hunter, instrumental
composition, and a jazz guitar duo.
He then decided to embark on a serious study of classical
guitar, studying, arranging and composition with Auckland
teacher Barry McLaren and also with Gunter Herbig, then
head of classical guitar at Auckland University. During
these years Ross enjoyed a range of music, finding he had
an affinity with Renaissance, Spanish and Middle Eastern
music. Using what he had learned, he started seriously
developing his own compositions in 1986.
This led to the release of his first CD, Atmospheric, in
1997, an EP-length recording of original material performed
on solo guitar. Three years later, in 2000, came Origins,
another EP-length CD of original compositions, with Nicole
Leonard adding keyboards, percussion and woodwinds.
In 2006 Attar Music released The Garden, a full-length
album that Ross considers contains his best compositions.
The strongest pieces of the previous two EPs have been
included, as well as a number of new compositions. The
selection has been made to display to range of his music
skills and interests.
In
2009 Ross released a DVD, In the Garden, in which he
performs ten of his original compositions in a variety of
natural New Zealand bush settings. Produced in conjunction
with Ross' filmmaker brother, Keith, with nature still
photography provided by Robert Elliott. All the
performances available in the Video section are from this
DVD. It was released by Attar Media.
Ross currently supports himself and his family by teaching
guitar out of his home studio in Auckland.
ROSS
HILL ON HIS MUSIC
Ross' approach to composing for the guitar has had two
aspects: first, to develop his own style of playing the
guitar; and second to use composition to explore the
various genres and types of music that draw him.
Underpinning both is a desire to find musical feels, and to
create music that evokes a range of different emotional
atmospheres.
Ross’ view is that a musician’s individual voice and style
comes out of developing an individual approach to rhythm,
harmony and melody. So when he writes a genre-based piece,
he tries to filter the music through his own approach and
his own emotional understanding of what the music is, and
where it might take both performer and listener.