Career
As a promoter of New Zealand music, Jack curated three Sonic Circuses in the 1980s, and three Asia-Pacific Festivals (1984, 1992 and 2007), as well as festivals of New Zealand music at Amsterdam’s IJsbreker, the Arboretum at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and, most recently, at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music (2009).
At Victoria University of Wellington he established a residency for traditional musicians to work collaboratively with composition staff and students. These guests have included, from Indonesia, Agus Supriawan, Dody Ekagustdiman (both from West Java), Rafiloza bin Rafii (Minangkabau), Wayan Yudane (Bali), and, from Kalinga, north Philippines, Benny Sokkong. These residencies have generated new compositions, recorded for broadcast and CD publication. In his own composition he has integrated other musical cultures as in Campur Sari for Javanese musician and string quartet, and Polish Dances, for clarinet and Javanese Gamelan.