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Early life and education

Roddick was born in Hamilton, attended primary school in Lower Hutt and secondary school in Invercargill.^[1] She attended the University of Otago, initially studying maths, music, psychology and geography before completing a performance degree in classical singing studying under Honor McKellar.^[1]^[2]

career

While at Otago Roddick performed with the Dunedin Operatic Society in The Boyfriend and Jesus Christ Superstar and at the Fortune Theatre singing Sondheim songs.^[1] In 1984 she completed a performance certificate at the Wellington Polytechnic with Flora Edwards.^[1] During her time as a student she was exposed to and became aware of different repertoire ( from Webern and Schoenberg to arias) and styles of singing and different schools of teaching singing.^[1] She made a decision not to pursue a career in classical singing in favour of branching out into other musical styles.^[3] She was introduced to jazz and improvisation when she joined jazz trio Jungle Suite with David Long and Neill Duncan.^[1]

Roddick was a member of the band Four Volts with Neill Duncan, David and Anthony Donaldson which became Six Volts in 1987 when David Long and Steven Roche joined.^[3]^[4]

In 1988 Six Volts played the music for The Threepenny Opera at Downstage Theatre with Roddick playing the part of Pirate Jenny.^[1]^[2]^[3]

After attending the Edinburgh Festival in 1990 Six Volts split up at the end of that year after recording their second album Stretch released in 1991.^[1]^[4] Roddick then went on to perform with several other groups: Big Fiddle, Babes in the Mood, Cutlery Set and Toro Loca Banda.^[5]

Collaborations with other musicians led to performing in other musical styles such as country and western with the band Big Fiddle and satirical musical revues with Babes in the Wood.^[6]^[4] Roddick, Roche, David Donaldson and Tim Robinson formed the Brainchilds, writing their own material.^[1]

Roddick, David Donaldson and Steve Roche formed Plan 9, a screen composing group which has worked on music and sound design for movies for directors Peter Jackson and Gaylene Preston including The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, and Perfect Strangers.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Patterson, Andra (Spring 1993). "Pirate Jenny: the singular voice of Janet Roddick". Music in New Zealand. 22: 50–53. ISSN 0113-7441.
^ ^a ^b "The power of six". Agenda: 23. November 1988. ISSN 0113-6194.
^ ^a ^b ^c Galloway, Penny (5 March 1988). "Watts in a name?". NZ Listener. 120 (2506): 26.
^ ^a ^b ^c Yates, Charlotte (Winter 1991). "The band of Six Volts". Illusions. 16: 15–17. ISSN 0112-9341.
^ Houlahan, Mike (4 March 1992). "Volts spark again in night of nostalgia". Evening Post. p. 10.
^ "Satire with Babes in Mood". Press. 23 October 1991. p. 8.
^ "Plan 9 for aural space". Onfilm: the New Zealand motion picture industry magazine: 24. March 2007. ISSN 0112-2789.