Wanaka Summit YAMI Announces Tutors

With a reputation for luring some of Aotearoa’s finest musical talent along with industry heavyweights, YAMI (Youth + Adults in the Music Industry) is preparing to celebrate 10 years of delivering the high-aiming Wanaka summit.

Held at the start of NZ Music Month (May 3 + 4) organisers are thrilled to announce tutors and speakers from Home Brew, The Teskey Brothers, The Black Seeds, Latinaotearoa, Haz & Miloux, The Nudge, The Nomad, Black Comet, and Gin Wigmore.

Gin, who will be guiding songwriters and composers, says she is “absolutely delighted to be a part of this event”. A significant number of talented local artists are also tutoring at this year’s summit including Anna and Rick Shaw and Laura Lush.

Participants learn to navigate the music industry with workshop and seminar topics covering performance, DJing, songwriting, beatmaking, royalties and distribution, album release, marketing and management. Many new classes have been added to this year’s programme including Musical Matchmaker, Sampling and Looping, Releasing An Album, and Vocal and Guitar Masterclasses.

With most of the crew being volunteers, director Lynne Christie acknowledges the support from the music industry is vital. “The staff, tutors and speakers from all sectors of the creative and events industries are incredibly generous with their time and knowledge; they tap into focussed hacks that guide talented artists to the next level.”

Multi award-winning artist Tom Scott (Homebrew, Avantdale Bowling Club, @Peace) says he’s heard about the summit through other musicians and is “looking forward to mentoring committed performers, writers and producers”.

Scott’s manager Lorraine Barry (Sir Dave Dobbyn, Aidan Fine, Home Brew, Avantdale Bowling Club) will also speak and guide at the summit along with Karyn Rachtman of Mind Your Music, who curates the soundtracks for some of the most influential movies and tv shows of the past two decades.

Representatives from NZ On Air, APRA, IMNZ and NZ Music Commission deliver an often unheard perspective to steer future recording artists through the next stages of their career.

Although all early bird tickets have already sold out, standard places for Junior (ages 10 to 13 years), Youth (ages 14 to 18 years) and Adult (ages 19 to 110 years) are still available at Ticket Fairy.

Image: Yami 2023 Kiwi Legend Anika Moa performs with students
Photographer: Mickey Ross