23 September 2007 - 0 Comments
A guitar signed by the members of legendary British post-punk rock group The Cure is one of the star items in the Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust charity auction on November 1.
The trust’s fourth annual auction also features performances by some of the country’s leading musicians including Hollie Smith, a four-time finalist at the 2007 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards.
The Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust operates New Zealand’s first and only dedicated music therapy centre in the Auckland suburb of Newton. It opened in 2003 and delivers music therapy to special needs children of school age and younger.
The leading lights of the New Zealand music industry will be on hand to support the centre at the auction in the Auckland Town Hall – THE EDGE®. The event includes some very special live performances by a set of New Zealand’s favourite musicians as well as some creative auction items.
Lots are still being donated but they already include a set of eight dinner plates designed by Kiwi musicians including Bic Runga, Scribe, Brooke Fraser and Don McGlashan and artworks by Otis Frizzell, Bill Hammond, Karl Maughan and James Robinson.
Trust co-patron Boh Runga is donating an item from her upcoming New Zealand Mint jewellery range and there is also a platinum chair package for two to attend the 2008 Mission Concert in Hawke’s Bay.
The evening includes cocktails and dinner during which guests will be entertained with performances by Nesian Mystik’s Te Awanui Reeder, Don McGlashan, Hollie Smith, Fly My Pretties and a surprise guest artist. The live auction begins at 9.30pm.
Guest of honour at the event is Dr Clive Robbins, co-founder of the pioneering Nordoff Robbins approach to music therapy practised by the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre.
The centre receives no government assistance. In 2004 the auction raised $120,000, $190,000 in 2005 and last year more than $200,000 to help the centre meet ongoing running costs and capital needs.
Tickets to the gala event/fundraiser are $250 per person or $2,500 for a table of 10 and are available through Justine McKay [email protected]
About The Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre
The centre provides music therapy for special needs children of school age and younger. It is New Zealand’s first music therapy centre.
The idea grew from a Kiwi family’s experience of music therapy in the UK and, subsequently, the realisation there was a need to provide a similar service here.
Singer and songwriter Hinewehi Mohi, her husband George and daughter Hineraukatauri spent time at the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Centre in London in 1999.
Hineraukatauri has severe cerebral palsy. It was soon evident that therapy through music struck a chord for her. For the first time in her life, she had an opportunity to participate in and control an activity and to actually create something. Most important for Hineraukatauri, music became a means to communicate.
Upon its return to New Zealand, the family determined to establish a music therapy Centre here. The dream is now realised with the opening in early 2004 of the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre (RMTC) in Sandringham, Auckland.
The centre moved to bigger premises in Newton in 2005 comprising of two workrooms an observation facility, an office and waiting room and associated facilities.
Currently there are three full time and one part time, qualified music therapists and an assortment of musical instruments. These include a piano, snare drums, splash cymbals, crash cymbals, wind chimes, xylophones, tambourines, loads of drumsticks and mallets and much more!
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