French Circle Dances and English Country Dances
2025-09-07 13:00 - 15:00 (Pacific/Auckland) | WEA Canterbury Workers’ Educational Association, 59 Gloucester Street, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8013, New Zealand
French Circle DancesHere we will learn simple dances from Renaissance France. These dances have easy tunes which can be sung or played by the tutor/students on recorder and drum.

English Country DancesMoving on from the French Circle dances, we will learn medium difficulty-level English dances first published in 1651. These dances have easy tunes which can be played by the tutor/students on recorder and drum.

About NicolaNicola joined the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) while she was studying at the University of Canterbury. This diverse group of historic re-enactors exposed her to many aspects of European culture, including cooking, crafts, martial arts, music, and dance. After their dance master moved back to Australia, Nicola began teaching the weekly dance classes for the SCA, a volunteer position which lasted thirteen years.

Cost – $30 per person.

Please register using this link https://forms.gle/7KGQ99t8SawWCVG47

Christchurch Big Band Jazz Festival 2025
2025-10-23 00:00 - 2025-10-27 23:59 | Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
The Christchurch Big Band Jazz Festival is a five day music festival held every Labour weekend in Christchurch.
• It brings fresh musical vibrancy to the streets and venues of Ōtautahi, Christchurch in spring, attracting thousands of listeners to exciting toe-tapping entertainment all around the city.
• Running since 2006, the CBBF is run by the community for the community and is the only Big Band Festival in New Zealand.
• Accessibility is a kaupapa of the festival with mostly free performances.
• Bands from all over New Zealand gather in Christchurch to play Big Band style jazz providing performance opportunities for around 500 musicians in 20 – 25 groups across 60 scheduled performances as well as a Big band Boogie Ball.
As well as all the performances, there are workshops for youth and all ages as well as a jam night and parade to join in with.
Junior Jazz Jam, an event for Primary school aged jazz bands runs on the Thursday afternoon.
See details and registration at chchbigbandfest.com. [Registration is through a portal – if you have played other years, you just login and
Specific event details will be updated from late May on.
Registrations open late February and close May 3rd for big bands, but workshops and ticketed events will be live until the event unless sold out prior.

Taonga Puoro weekend: Rapaki Marae, Ōtautahi
2026-02-20 17:00 - 2026-02-22 15:00 | Rāpaki Marae, 37 Rapaki Drive, Te Rāpaki-o-Te Rakiwhakaputa, 8971, New Zealand
Nau mai haere mai ki te ao Puoro.
Welcome to the world of Taonga Puoro in the world of Tangata Moana.

Please fill out the registration form if you would like to attend a Taonga Puoro wānanga at Rapaki Marae, Christchurch.

Details:

Venue: Rapaki Marae, Christchurch
Dates: Friday 20th 5pm – Sunday 22 February 2026 3pm
Powhiri: 5pm
Koha: a gift to Mana whenua – Can be a taonga, money or tradtional rongoa
Cost: Koha to MENZA
Facilitators: Kelly Kahukiwa, Horomona Horo, Wiremu Sarich

What to bring:
– Blanket
– Pillow
– Appropriate clothing
– Instrument (could be a Taonga Puoro, Guitar, Harp, Trumpet, Stone, Spoons – kei a koe, up to you)
– Shell, Stick, Stone kei a koe te tikanga, it is up to you how big or small.
– Bring lots of questions
– Be open minded

Noho Marae:
We are limited to 40 spaces, so a confirmation email will be sent out by December the 1st.

Please arrange your transport to and from Marae, full catering is provided

MENZA Organisation Contact: admin@menza.co.nz
Wānanga Contact: Christian McDonald chris.mcd@hotmail.co.nz 0224161353

To secure your place, please register here.

The Power of Musical Play
2026-04-18 10:00 - 12:00 | Hoon Hay Presbyterian Church, 5 Downing St, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
This two hour interactive practical Musical Play workshop is based on Julie Wylie and Dr. Susan Foster Cohen’s recently published book “Unleashing the Power of Musical Play” Routledge Publishers England.
It will help participants to gain understanding about Julie Wylie’s philosophy of Musical Play through practical exploration of how to follow the child through improvisation, specific use of the elements of music. use of sung instructions and narrative songs. There wil be an emphasis on exploring the importance of musical play to human development and human relationships within families, in schools, early childhood settings, and in therapeutic contexts. Musical play can enrich communities, bring people together from different cultures, through intergenerational music, and support individual and community well being.
BOOK NOW
Date: Saturday April 18th
Time: 10 am-12pm
Venue: Hoon Hay Presbyterian Church, 5 Downing St, off Lewis St which is off Hoon Hay Rd.
Fee: $60
To register: Please email jcwyliemusic@gmail.com before 11 April.
Payment should be made to the following account. PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A DIFFERENT ACCOUNT FROM THE ONE YOU PAY CLASS FEES TO.
Account Name: Julie Wylie Institute of Musical Play Limited
Account No: 02-0828-0131676-000
Particulars: 180426
Reference: Your name

Julie Wylie MNZM founded the New Zealand Musical Parenting Association in 1992. She was the founder of the musical play programme at the Champion Centre, Burwood Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand, where she was the senior music specialist for twenty eight years. Julie has been invited to present music workshops and papers in many countries, including Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland. She has received awards for her music leadership, and her music resources have won international awards. Julie was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours. She has her own music school for mothers and babies and children aged 0-8 years founded in 1990 and is the Director of the Postgraduate online training programme: “Certificate of Musical Play as Therapy”.

Loopy Tunes Preschool Music - Workshop for Educators
2026-04-22 08:00 - 2026-04-23 17:00
Greymouth: Wed, 22 Apr, from 1-2.30pm, at Tai Poutini Polytechnic
Darfield: Thu, 23 Apr, from 1-2.30pm, at the Darfield Recreation Centre
Workshop fee is $46 per person (booking fee, optional)
We are excited to offer a workshop for kaiako | educators | musicians | volunteers | children’s music enthusiasts to come along to, to learn more about the mahi that we do, the resources we have to offer (and how we use them in our classes), and more!
The following is what the workshop will include:

A focus on deconstructing the music classes we run
Sharing the different ways we use the bilingual songs that we create
Lots of group discussion, using it as a time to share resources with each other
Some Q&A time towards the end of the workshop
Some “brain food” (aka. light nibbles) to help encourage some good discussons! Please email us directly if you have any food intolerances that we need to consider.
A certificate of completion to add to your professtional development kete!

We are Siu Williams-Lemi and Leah Williams-Partington, a sister music duo, based in Ōtautahi/Christchurch, who specialise in bilingual Māori children’s music, who have been running community preschool music classes for over 15 years. These classes are a HUGE part of our “why” and we are grateful for the opportunity to not only share what we have learned along the way, but to also offer a space to share together with other kaiako in the same field. As with any of our performances, this will be very interactive and we will have you all up and enjoying a kanikani and singalong with us… more than once!
Here is some feedback from previous workshops:
The workshop provided excellent new ideas and served as a great reminder that even small efforts can make a big difference!
Lovely ladies. Inclusive, welcoming, and valuable sharing of ideas. Fabulous waiata – wonderful resourced – it is special that so many children get to hear their own languages and therefore feel seen, heard, included and valued.
Leah and Siu were both so lovely to talk to in person and so down to earth. I got so many great ideas for how to run music sessions with my preschoolers. Thank you so much!
Thanks for being so generous in sharing your music and mahi! Awesome for someone like me who is not so musically gifted but know the importance of it for our tamariki
