Born 2 December 1937 in Wellington New Zealand, only child of Hubert and Betty Powell. Father is a mechanic and amateur clockmaker and mother a keen pianist.
Learns piano and later clarinet and sings in the Ngaio church choir.
After school he studies maths and science at the Victoria University (Wellingon) and his first compositions are heard in the University Music Society. Meets Douglas Lilburn.
1960 graduates with MSc in mathematics and starts music degree course (Wellington).
1961 moves to Christchurch to study at the Teachers Training College and remains to teach at Linwood High School (1962).
1961 meets Nelson Wattie who performs Reading Gaol.
1962 meets Don McAra who inspires him to act: Othello —Othello Overture
1960—63 attends annual Music Summer School for four years in Cambridge (NZ) where his first orchestral works are performed. Tutors: Ron Tremain and Larry Pruden
1964 graduates as Bachelor of Music (hons)
1966 – 1967 travels to Europe:
Corso medio at the Università per Stranieri, Perugia, where he meets Brigitte Bänninger.
2 months’ course at Accademia Chigiana, Siena, with composer Goffredo Petrassi.
In December 1966 marries Brigitte in Bülach (Switzerland).
1967 teaches English in Zurich (Berlitz School), learns German and attends a course in Neue Musik, Darmstadt (Stockhausen, Ligeti, Earl Brown, etc.).
1968 returns to Linwood High School.
1969 birth of Philip and 1970 of Fiona.
Starts composing for total theatre productions:
1969 The Odyssey
1970 Harald and William
1971 Simplicissimus
1972 Akhnaton
1973 writes Musical Design for schools.
1975 becomes a lecturer at the Teachers Training College, meets Michael Harlow and completes The Fisherman and his Wife.
First works with Michael Harlow: Stone Poem (1976), Devotion to the Small (1980) and Texts for Composition (1979 – performed 1983).
1978 meets Gennie de Lange. She and KP teach their own children pottery and music. In 1980 a concert of their compositions and an exhibition of their clay sculptures takes place.
1980 – 1981 sabbatical year in Switzerland to study teaching of creativity.
Composition course in Aix-en-Provence with Mauricio Kagel.
1982 back in New Zealand (Christchurch Teachers College). Performances of Piece of 4, Christophorus (English version) and The Evercircling Light.
1983 Pan Verlag publishes Galgenlieder and Musik mit gefundenen Gegenständen.
1984 Powell family moves to Switzerland, teaches theory at Winterthur Conservatory, meets Dominik Blum. Concert in Winterthur under the title of Chance Meeting: Three Chance Pieces Plus One, Stone Poem for Clarinet and Tape, etc.
1986 Michael Harlow is Katherine Mansfield scholar in Menton (France). He visits Eglisau and plans the Nelson Songs with KP. In summer Nelson Songs is premiered in Laufen (Germany) by Nelson Wattie.
1987 visits UPIC course in Paris on the computer music machine by Iannis Xenakis and writes Flötenspieler und Fledermäuse. In October takes part in the Wellington Sonic Circus with the Harlow/Powell Les Episodes for soprano, baritone and orchestra and misses the premiere of Flötenspieler und Fledermäuse in Winterthur. Meets Yuri Sobolev at his first exhibition in Switzerland.
1988 Chinese Songs performed several times in Switzerland by Franziska Stähelin.
1989 Monika Lichtensteiger organises a concert in Rigiblick Theatre (Zürich). First performances of Poem then, for love, The Green Man and Father’s Telescope. Performers: David Thorner, Franziska Stähelin and percussionist Christoph Caskel (related to Monika).
1990 works on the chamber opera Hauptsache, man geht zusammen hin to a libretto by Jürg Schubiger. First Russian trip: Moscow and Lenningrad. Planning for Puppet Desert
1990 Gargantua conducted by André Fischer with the Statdmusik Illnau/Effretikon.
1991 Lemon Music for an exhibition of works by Yuri and his wife Galia in Zurich. Work on Encounter with Don Giovanni and Un quart d'heure avec Dom Juan
1992 Eglisau 1100 year celebrations: Mayenzeit for brass band.
1993 Concert (together with André Fischer) in the Zürcher Stadthaus. Both versions of WHALE are premièred: for choir and tape and for trombone and tape
Visit to the Woollastons in Nairobi. Tape piece: Jua Kali with sounds from metal market.
Performance of three scenes from the chamber opera Hauptsache, man geht zusammen hin conducted by André Fischer.
1994: Dominik Blum conducts Dies irae for soprano, men’s chorus and ensemble. First meeting with Dominique Hunziker as solo flautist.
Performance of WHALE for trombone and tape at the 1994 Bourges Festival.
1995: Second Russian visit: KYKART-II Festival in Pushkin. Première of After Babel (Harlow texts). Also performed: WHALE, Amselbaum, Piano Poems, Metamorphoses, Sonatina for Trombone and Piano.
1996: Buys house on Promenadenstrasse 24, Eglisau
Various commissions:
1995 Innere Stimmen Robert Schumanns. from the Vokalensemble Zürich for electroacoustic interpolations in the Schumann Mass
1996 Boundaries from the Musicum Collegium Schaffhausen
1997 Der Wal from the Union of Music Teachers, Aarau
1997 Concerto for 5 Percussionists and Orchestra from the Kantonsschule Wattwil
1998 Koauau from the flute ensemble les joueurs de flûte
1998 Salmagundi from the brass ensemble Brass Connection
1999 Credo from a group of Swiss churches
1999 Die Poppa from the Landeskirchen (regional churches) Switzerland
2000 Sextett für Klarinette, Bassklarinette und Streichquartett from a group of music teachers
2001 Concerto for Trombone and Tuba from the Europäischer Musikmonat in Basel
2001 Scheint denn die Sonne heut’ nicht? from the Zurich Conservatory for the Robert Walser Centenary
2002 Retires from the Zurich Conservatory (2003). 65th birthday concert organised by André Fischer.
2005 Rothko Variations is played as a reading by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra NZSO in Wellington.
2005 Visits Kapiti Island – piano piece Kapiti
2006 Fiona and Roger's wedding: Wedding Fanfare
2006 Starts writing the Maui Cycle for solo clarinet and orchestra.
2009 Alles unter einem Hut (soprano and string orchestra) performed in Thayngen and Schaffhausen
2009 Te Ika a Maui (first movement of the Maui Cycle, a concerto for clarinet and orchestra) is played in a reading by the NZSO in Wellington
2010 Finishes the Maui Cycle
2011 Finishes the Missa Profana
2012 Was Liebe ist (soprano and piano). Two concerts in Zurich: also with Alles unter einem Hut
2012 Roger Boltshauser makes 75th Birthday Concert in the Kunsthaus Zürich possible, with ensemble neue musik zürich, David Thorner, Dominik Blum, Philip and Fiona Powell. Première performances of Kapiti, Sextet, Chance Piece for Flute and Tape and Microzoic Piano Suite
2015 Whale Fantasy piano solo written for See Siang Wong
2017 Let all words be music
2016-17 Schubert 1828
2016-17 Symphonie réflectique
2. 12. 2017Tide Pools, 80th birthday concert in the Auditorium of the Old Conservatory, Zürich. A concert of so far unperformed choral works sung by the Vokalensemble Zürich with conductor by Peter Siegwart and pianist Paul Suits.Program: Tide PoolsA ShoutPaper Pieces Whale FantasyToday is the Piano’s Birthday5 Schwitters Songs for AndresLet all words be music
17. 4. 2018Kit Powell meets Schubert First performance of Schubert 1828 Concert in the Maaghalle Zürich. Conductor André Fischer, orchestra ZKO
2021 Finishes Symphonic Reflections for Sop. Bass and Orchestra to texts by Michael Harlow
2021 Old student friend Neil Ashcroft dies. In Memoriam NWA for String Quartet composed in his honour. Performed by NZ String Quartet