Tutors Mark Baynes (left) and Josh Sorenson (right) in the computer lab at OMAC. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman
An iconic New Zealand music school, which trained many award-winning Kiwi artists, has been given a second life after being canned due to financial difficulties two years ago.
Former staff from MAINZ have now launched a new school called 'Let's Go Music' to help fill what they say is the gap left in music education in New Zealand.
MAINZ alumni include award-winning artists like Joel Little, who produced some of Lorde's early work, Gin Wigmore and Troy Kingi.
Josh Sorenson used to work at MAINZ - a music and audio institute that was part of the Southern Institute of technology before it closed down.
He was now the co-director of the new operation, and was thrilled to get it up and going.
"Oh it's amazing, like I say I was at MAINZ 23 years... and with it gone, there's a total gap. There was just nowhere for young creatives to get together the way that we do it."
The industry had been crying out for something like MAINZ since it closed down in 2023, Sorenson said.
"I've just recently come back on a tour, and I was working with a production team and they were like 'man since MAINZ is gone we've got no new people coming in who we feel confident that they know exactly what is required'."
Performance Hall at Otara Music Arts Centre. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman
Co-director Mark Baynes hoped that setting up the new venture independently, rather than as a part of a polytechnic as it was in the past, would give them much needed flexibility.
"We think it should have possibly been like that from the start. The way technology is moving is insane, and being able to shift on a dime, which is what you can do as a PTE (Private Training Establishment) is super important."
The new school would start out with a 16-week certificate in music creativity, but eventually they wanted to run longer diploma and degree courses.
Also on the cards were online masterclasses, band mentorship and programmes to help primary school teachers teach music.
Artist and actor Troy Kingi studied at MAINZ 22 years ago and said it was an important part of making him who he was as an artist.
Troy Kingi. Photo: Mark Russell / Renegade Peach
"We have like jazz school... but then you just have people that love music that don't necessarily know how to read it, but they can feel it... I feel like this is the place for them."
"Most of our industry, our artists are built from that sort of pool."
He said it was awesome that MAINZ could live on in its new form.
The school's focus on learning about different genres helped inspire his 10-10-10 series in which he aimed to produce ten albums in ten different genres over ten years.
"Having those four weeks or whatever, everything was programmed towards that style of music. So you're doing your music history and it's blues month - it's all about blues. You're in a band trying to write blues songs."
"That played a major part in what I'm doing right now."
That focus on genre was something that had been kept as a core part of the new course - in the hopes of training the next generation of Kiwi artists.
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