Jerome is an established Composer of Taonga Puoro music for film, television series and commercial campaigns both in Aotearoa and internationally. 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.
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 Aoteaora 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, the British Museum 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.
