About the Lilburn Residence
The former home of composer Douglas Lilburn (ONZ) in Thorndon, Wellington has been offered as a residence for New Zealand composers for over 15 years. The property is administered by the Lilburn Residence Trust, who ensure that the property is used in a manner befitting the legacy of New Zealand’s most important composer of the 20th century. The Trust normally offers use of the house to the composer holding the New Zealand School of Music Composer-in-Residence. If that composer does not require the house, then the Trust calls for applications from other New Zealand composers. Each composer lives in the house, paying a modest rent, for up to a year.
Our current Composer-in-Residence
Dr Eve de Castro-Robinson is our 2026 Composer-in-Residence. Eve is recognised as one of the country’s foremost composers, brings to the position a compelling body of work spanning orchestral, vocal, chamber, and theatrical music. Her music is performed nationally and internationally, and she holds the distinction of being the first recipient of the Doctor of Music in Composition from the University of Auckland in 1991. Her compositional voice engages sonic architecture, timbral exploration and a rich palette of influences, from hymns and free-jazz, to graphic design and sonic art.
During her residency, Eve aims to weave together longstanding compositional interests with Douglas Lilburn’s former home as well as the teaching, research, and outreach of NZSM. Among other strands, she envisions creating a major new chamber-orchestral work that bridges taonga pūoro and contemporary instrumentation, a suite of smaller ensemble pieces for staff and students at the NZSM, and workshops, lectures, and creative lab sessions. In Eve’s own words: “I am really chuffed to be awarded this residency which will see me fully immersed in the vibrant creative city that I've spent forty years only visiting…I had a visit with a very welcoming Douglas Lilburn in the house in the late 1980s, in which we drank wine and listened to his piano music—an indelibly etched memory. The essence of my plans involves extensive collaboration with my Wellington musical whānau.”
The Magpie House
SOUNZ The Centre for New Zealand Music has released a podcast series that examines the history and inhabitants of the Lilburn Residence. Titled The Magpie House its host Kirsten Johnstone weaves together the stories that surround the house and its inhabitants into a Forest-Gump-like saga of war and music, cold-war espionage and persecution, the search for identity and a place to call home.
Listen to the four episodes below:
Episode 1: Landfall In Unknown Seas