JEROME KAVANAGH POUTAMA
✦
Puoro Jerome
✦
Ngāti Maniapoto - Matakore
Mōkai Pātea
Ngāti Rangi - Awa Whanganui
Ngāti Tūwharetoa
Ngāti Kahungunu iwi (Māori)
Caomhánach (Irish)
Grammy award winning Taonga Puoro practitioner/composer Jerome Kavanagh Poutama (Puoro Jerome) hails from the iwi of Ngāti Maniapoto - Matakore, Mōkai Pātea, Kahungunu, Ngāti Rangi - Awa Whanganui, Tūwharetoa (Māori) as well as Caomhanach (Irish) ancestry.
Through the teachings of his whānau and hapū, he was first introduced to Taonga Puoro by his Kuia who showed him a Pupurangi as a young child. As a 14-year-old his Aunty showed him a Kōauau which he naturally learnt to play. He developed his own unique playing style by walking his whenua close to the Ruahine Ranges, spending time listening and mimicking native bird calls with his voice.
After relocating from his rural tribal area to the city as a youth, Jerome battled with depression and several suicide attempts. To aid him in his recovery Jerome’s whānau guided him back home again to nature. It was here that he began his healing journey through the power of Taonga Puoro.
“The sound of the Koauau drew me out of the darkness and back into the light again.”
Over the past 21-years Jerome has become a full-time, independent Taonga Puoro practitioner and has come to be one of the most prolific providers of Puoro in Aotearoa. He continues to visit thousands of kura with his “Power to the Puoro” show. Jerome’s consistency and innovation in weaving Taonga Puoro back into the fabric of society is a continuation of the pathway forged by the late Dr. Hirini Melbourne and the Haumanu Collective. Jerome is also the Chair/Tiohau of SOUNZ Composers Advisory Panel (CAP).
Jerome is an established Composer of Taonga Puoro music for film, television series and commercial campaigns both in Aotearoa and internationally. He was
co-composer alongside Lachlan Anderson for The Dead Lands Series (2020)
[Shudder USA/TVNZ] and Rūrangi [Hulu/USA] which received an International Emmy Award in New York for Best Short-Form Series (2022). More recently he has created music and featured in the major international ad campaign Nga Taritari o Matariki alongside 100% Pure New Zealand (Tourism NZ) and creative agency RUN reaching over 4-billion views worldwide which won 2 awards at the Best Design awards - 2022 (NZ).
He has released several albums which focus on the indigenous healing and ambient sounds of Taonga Puoro including the highly acclaimed ORO ATUA (2017) utilizing Taonga Puoro exclusively. In early 2022 he released ORO ATUA KI TE AO an independent, interactive podcast on the healing practices of Taonga Puoro in modern times.
Jerome has starred in the German Feature Film Das Gluck am anderen Ende der Welt (2007) and will feature in the Documentary Feature Film Dutch/Norwegian Production We are the River (2023). In addition to this, We are the River (2023) will be Jerome’s first time as main composer for a Feature Film.
During his 20-year career he has performed and recorded with artists across a wide variety of genres ranging from hip-hop to classical. Jerome was a featured solo artist and lyricist on the two-time Grammy award-winning album Calling All Dawns for his track Kia Hora te Marino recorded at Abbey Road studios, with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Some of his collaborations include Christopher Tin, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Moana and the Tribe, Daniel Beddingfeild, Hayley Westenra,
Joler Gaan (Bangladesh), Kevin Mark Trail (The Streets) UK, Small Island Big Song,
Lachlan Anderson, Drax Project, Louis Baker, Ria Hall, Salina Fisher and
NZ Symphony Orchestra.
Jerome has toured extensively all over the world, taking Taonga Puoro abroad and representing Aotearoa at some of the world's most prestigious music venues. He has performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House and the British Museum. Jerome has toured with Small Island Big Song playing at mega festivals throughout Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic and was a selected member of the New Zealand Art Delegation at the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts in the Solomon Islands.
Over the past decade, he and his whānau of Taonga Puoro, named Te Haa o Pohokura, have been sharing the “ORO ATUA” (a Māori sound journey experience). This vehicle utilizes and revives the ancestral practice of indigenous sound therapy in a modern time. He has shared the ORO ATUA extensively around Aotearoa in marae, wānanga, schools, universities and for team building/hauora events within businesses. Jerome has also toured the ORO ATUA throughout Australia, Europe, UK, Indonesia and the USA.
In 2022 Jerome was awarded a research grant through the Health Research Council of New Zealand to hold wānanga and gather research on the positive effects of Taonga Puoro for our people as Rongoā Māori.
Jerome was appointed as the 2022 Composer-in-Residence at New Zealand School of Music Te Koki, Victoria University with support from Creative New Zealand and The Lilburn Trust. He also received a prestigious Kawenata Award and was recognised by his Iwi Te Nehenehenui ngā hapū maha o Ngāti Maniapoto for
Māoritanga Creative Artist of the Year.
At present, Jerome and his hoa rangatira Ruiha continue to share their Taonga Puoro Kaupapa throughout Aotearoa in a vast range of settings, including their interactive live show "Power to the Puoro" and the “ORO ATUA”. The duo work in balance as taha wahine and taha tane, reviving the balanced practices of our Tūpuna.