Now celebrating its fourteenth anniversary, the Akaroa Music Festival is New Zealand’s premiere residential music school. An array of distinguished international musicians provides lessons, masterclasses and concerts against the breathtaking backdrop of one of the world’s most beautiful seaside towns.

These intensive days of music making also include solo performances, chamber music and a string orchestra, all designed to engage and inspire advanced young musicians. Students are invited to apply on the following instruments: violin, viola, cello, recorder, flute, clarinet, bassoon, harpsichord and piano.

If you have never experienced an extended live-in music festival, be prepared to work hard, have fun, and play better than you thought you could. Our students come from all over New Zealand and from abroad, and the friendships made here are ones that last. Mix work with and pleasure in Akaroa, the gem at the heart of the remarkable Banks Peninsula