Jenny McLeod: A Life in Music

Jenny McLeod was a musical prodigy, born in 1941, who became a sensation in New Zealand. By age five, she could read music fluently. She studied with prominent figures like Douglas Lilburn, Frederick Page, Olivier Messiaen, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

In 1967, she joined Victoria University’s music department and quickly became New Zealand’s youngest full professor. Her large-scale works for orchestra and children’s choirs, Earth and Sky (1968) and Under the Sun (1971), gained her widespread recognition.

In 1976, she retired from the university due to her devotion to Maharaj Ji’s Divine Light Mission. However, she soon returned to composing, creating a prolific body of work until her death in 2022.

Her major works include music for the film The Silent One, song cycles based on poems by Janet Frame, and the opera Hohepa, which premiered at the New Zealand International Arts Festival in 2012.

Based on conversations with Jenny McLeod, as well as her writings, letters, and works, Norman Meehan tells the story of this remarkable composer’s life.