BT River of Music: Green Fire Islands interview for London 2012 A geographical chasm lies between Ireland and New Zealand, almost 12,000 miles wide: you would travel over 12 time zones, four continents, three oceans and two seasons en route from one to the other. Yet, if you zoom out above the earth you notice that they mirror each other diagonally across the equator. And you can spot the family resemblance between the jewel-green, rainsoaked islands, strung out on their own amid wild seas, populated by leprechauns, hobbits and sheep, stubbornly clinging on to ancient tongues under latter-day conquerors. Kiwi arts entrepreneur Bronwen Christianos had that strange moment of recognition nearly 20 years ago. We lived really remotely and so I was teaching my children at home by correspondence course. The education board sent out tapes of the taonga puoro, the ancient Maori instruments. Coincidentally, at the same time I was listening to the revival of old Celtic music that was coming out of Ireland in the late Eighties. Both musical traditions have very strong, deep roots and they were going through this amazing renaissance in parallel, which struck me as extraordinary. "Everybody loves the haka but it is actually a challenge to war," Christianos says. It is a tiny part of traditional Maori music, which has some exquisitely beautiful sounds in it. There are 40 wind instruments alone. The tones they make are so atmospheric, it gets right into the marrow of your bones. And I felt the same listening to Irish music, that there was this similar resonance. That tangential connection took a leap forward when, a few years later, Christianos travelled to Ireland and met the respected folk musician Donal Lunny. He seized upon her idea to have Irish and Maori musicians, dancers and poets on stage together having what Christianos calls "a musical conversation." It took a decade of planning, or as Christianos describes it, "cosmic weaving," but by 2008 Green Fire Islands finally went on tour in New Zealand, blending the different songs and styles together with a classic love-story narrative. We only had five days' rehearsals but the show just worked. We had standing ovations," she says. The audience at Greenwich will be lucky to experience this extraordinary collaboration, which stars guitarist and musical director Steve Cooney, Irish fiddler Nollaig Casey and the passionate sean nós voice of Iarla Ó Lionáird. These ancient songs tap into the feelings of isolation, pain and recovery that both nations have been through. I think the story touches something universal in the human heart - the survival and renaissance of these two fragile cultures is such a hopeful story for everybody. Green Fire Islans will appear Sunday July 22 on the BT River of Music Oceania stage, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.