Celebrating unsung musical heroes

REPEAT OFFENDER: Gisborne Girls' High School music teacher Jane Egan has once again been nominated for Music Teacher of the Year at the AMA Artisan Awards. File picture

Jane Egan is no one-hit-wonder.

The head of music at Gisborne Girls' High School has again been recognised as one of the top music teachers in Aotearoa.

For the sixth year running, Recorded Music NZ and Massey University will celebrate the unsung heroes of Aotearoa's music industry at the AMA Artisan Awards.

Five Tui awards are up for grabs in different categories, with Egan nominated for Music Teacher of the Year.

The other four categories are Best Producer, Best Music Video Content, Best Album Artwork and Best Engineer.

It is the third time Egan has been nominated for the Tui award.

Egan began working at Girls' High in 1997, teaching guitar then working her way up to head of the music department.

She plays the guitar, drums, flute and sings.

The finalists and winners will be filmed at Massey University and released on TVNZ OnDemand at a later date.

The show will feature performances from Jaedyn Randell and Dream Chambers, The Nudge V Troy Kingi, and Ka Hao.

Music awards manager Sarah Owen said it had been another challenging year for the creative industries, with Covid-19 impacting all aspects of Aotearoa's hapori puoro (music industry).

“While this year has certainly had its challenges, it's also been filled with success stories from Aotearoa's music community.

“Everything comes together behind the scenes and we're lucky to have some of the world's best producers, engineers, designers, directors, teachers, managers and artists,” Owen said.

The other two nominees for Music Teacher of the Year are Papakura High School's Andrea Rabin and Hobsonville Point Secondary School's Jeni Little.