Eva Bedggood
Youth Content Creator | Kaiāwhina Whakatairanga 

In our Meet the Team series, we invite you to sit down and learn more about each SOUNZ staff member. Today we introduce Eva Bedggood, our Youth Content Creator | Kaiāwhina Whakatairanga.

Can you tell us a bit about your family and where you’re from?

From a very early age, I was brought up to appreciate and immerse myself in musical and cultural communities. My parents were professional dancers with RNZB, and so their love of music was passed down to me and my older brother, where I now take great joy in spreading that passion and appreciation of arts to others just as they did to me. My whanau and I have been engrossed in this passion of music making, and communication through and about arts to others, and having been brought up to have an extra awareness to expressing art and our culture is something I feel very committed to in my identity and place in New Zealand. Music and family, intertwined. My younger years were spent constantly outdoors with my whanau, travelling around the South Island and forming fond memories of our beautiful environment, country, and family.

Where did you grow up? Where else have you lived?

I have spent the majority of my life in Otautahi, Christchurch, being surrounded by music and the arts in a nurturing and supportive community through the Christchurch School of Music and beyond. After the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011, my whanau moved to the Selwyn region where I lived for ten years as I started my university studies at University of Canterbury. In 2022 I decided to transfer my music education to Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington and have been living in the vibrant city of Poneke ever since.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?

I love surrounding myself in nature and our native bush when not musicking and working. Having a sense of clarity in life is nourishing, and what better way to achieve that than walking amongst the flora and fauna of Aotearoa?! Other things like cooking, painting, and creating collaborative activities, in or outside of music, is something I also take enjoyment from.

What is your earliest musical memory?

My earliest musical memory is listening to not one, but three entire musical albums with my parent’s as they cleaned the house one Spring day, and three-year-old me danced around the living room, getting in the way of their vacuum cleaner. The albums were Winton Masalis’s Vivaldi Trumpet Concerto album, followed by Dvorjak’s New World Symphony and Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. These albums were what made me decide to pursue a career in classical performance and to spread that same joy of music to others.

How do you maintain work/life balance?

I try to surround myself with as little distraction and negativity as possible – a healthy balance is surrounding yourself with good people and work you love, but also finding things that are just for you; yoga, walks, cooking, and art are the things I like to try to balance a busy life with.

Favorite quote

Wabi Sabi, meaning appreciating the imperfections in life and nature.

What’s the best meal you have ever had?

The best meal I have ever had would have to be from a little Italian restaurant I went to with my family in Harlem… it was the best calzoni I’ve ever had!

If you could visit anywhere in the world, you’ve never been, where would you go?

I would love to go to Japan, so I can see their beautiful pottery, temples, and culture in person.

Choose a movie title for the story of your life.

Whiplash, as it represents the turmoil life throws at you but then inevitably coming back out on top!

 

The Youth Content Creator role is supported by a generous grant from the Adam Foundation.