Great Local Music For All Kiwis This Nz Music Month

(Thursday, 22nd April) Aotearoa’s iconic NZ Music Month | Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa kicks off on May 1st, celebrating great local music for all New Zealanders - in every place, for every age, and in every genre. The month of May will see a host of celebrations, new releases, artist tours and special events happening across Aotearoa.

NZ Music Month’s Rodney Fisher commented: “With a focus on bringing great music from Aotearoa to all New Zealanders, we look forward to highlighting stories from across the country, along with the reminder to support our musicians by getting out and catching live gigs, streaming local, following local acts online, and buying local music and merch.”

To mark 21 years of NZ Music Month | Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa, the NZ Music Commission are proud to present Art of the Record, a travelling exhibition to showcase 21 iconic album covers. The exhibition will open in Auckland on May 1st, before travelling to Wellington for May 10th, followed Christchurch on May 17th and Dunedin on May 24th.

Art of the Record’s curator Willa Cameron from NZ Music Month commented: “We’ve compiled a beautiful collection of artworks across various musical genres, including Fat Freddy’s Drop’s Boondigga from Otis Frizzell, and The Mint Chicks’ Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! from Ruban Nielson. We think there’s something for everyone in our collection of 21 pieces.”

NZ Music Month | Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa will see a stellar line-up of local acts performing right across Aotearoa, with shows happening in a vast range of venues and regions. Confirmed tours include The Chills, The Veils, Nadia Reid and her band, Miles Calder, and Harper Finn & LA Women.

A bumper edition of the Music Commission’s Musicians Mentoring in Schools Programme will run throughout the month, with musicians working in classrooms nationwide. There are over 50 school visits planned across Gisborne, Hastings, Ōtaki, Lower Hutt, Christchurch, Invercargill and more, with the artists involved including Annie Crummer, Joel Shadbolt, Bella Kalolo and Louis Baker.

There will be events in all kinds of public spaces throughout the month, including a huge performance programme rolling out across the sites of Museums Wellington, both in the Space Place at the Carter Observatory and the Wellington Museum. The Christchurch Art Gallery is holding a launch concert on 1st May with an all Ōtautahi line-up, while the Lake Wanaka Centre is hosting the YAMI SouNZ Summit, with two days of workshops and concerts featuring Troy Kingi, Delaney Davidson and P.Diggsss of Shapeshifter. Dunedin will have the annual Nook & Cranny Festival at the Public Library, along with a lunchtime concert series each Saturday in May at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, and Auckland Live will host activations in Britomart and Aotea Square – stay tuned for more news.

A follow up to the original Waiata/Anthems album released in 2019, the Waiata Anthems series will celebrate some of our most loved Kiwi artists, including Che Fu, Bic Runga, Katchafire, Hollie Smith & Don McGlashan and more. Highlighting personal stories from the artists and their connections to Te Ao Māori and Aotearoa, each episode will see the artist either record a brand-new track, or re-record one of their biggest hits in te reo Māori, before treating audiences to a live performance of their waiata. Produced by Hinewehi Mohi and directed by Julia Parnell, Waiata Anthems will air exclusively on TVNZ On Demand from May 1st.

This year’s NZ Music Month Summit will return on Saturday, 29th May, with discussions from Kiwi artists and music industry professionals on topics including working with international stars and touring in Aotearoa. The Summit will take place in Auckland and be streamed online, with a focus on accessibility and support for local musicians and others in the industry. 100% of ticket sale income will go to MusicHelps, to help them continue their incredible efforts in providing help to those who need it.

For those keen to enjoy NZ Music Month | Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa from the comfort of home, NZ Film On Demand will be streaming a collection of Kiwi music films, from Herbs: Songs of Freedom and Daffodils, to POI E: The Story of Our Song and Shihad: Beautiful Machine.

NZ Music T-Shirt Day returns on Friday May 28th, with Kiwis encouraged to wear their favourite NZ music t-shirt and donate to the MusicHelps Live appeal, where the charity is providing vital support to Kiwi musicians affected by COVID-19. New Zealanders can text MUSIC to 2448 to donate $3.

NZ Music Month is run by the NZ Music Commission, with support from APRA AMCOS, Independent Music NZ, the Music Managers Forum, NZ On Air, Recorded Music NZ, SOUNZ and Te Māngai Pāho. The purpose of NZ Music Month to celebrate music from New Zealand, and the people who make it.

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