Music academy her dream job

MUSIC LOVERS: Annabelle Flood and her right-hand man, Brad Gamble, have been busy putting up flyers in preparation for the opening of the Napier Music Academy. Hawke’s Bay Today picture

What does a natural musician do after they have finished studying, taught music and sailed around the world performing on cruise ships? Open a music academy of course.

Hailing from Gisborne, singer Annabelle Flood is bringing her love for music to Hawke’s Bay, opening the Napier Music Academy in Clive Square at the start of next month.

“I realised there was no real music academy here. People were pretty excited for the idea and I thought I’d better give this a go,” she said.

Ms Flood said the idea of having one academy that offered something for everyone, whether it be instrumentalists, bands, musical holiday programmes or NCEA exams, was a dream she had had for a long time.

After completing a Bachelor of Music and classical performance in Wellington Ms Flood went on to do a postgraduate degree in teaching before teaching music in secondary schools around Wellington for six years.

She then took two years off teaching and travelled the world on a cruise ship working as a professional musician, playing and singing for up to five hours each night.

“I’m so glad I did it. It goes to show that there are jobs in music, and well-paid ones. We got to see the world at the same time too,” she said.

Ms Flood said it was during this period that she began to plan her “dream job” of running a music academy and landed on Napier as the location because it was between her two homes of Gisborne and Wellington.

Since moving to Napier at the end of last July, she’s worked to put a team of active musicians together who “practise what they preach”, to staff the academy.

“When you see your actual teacher getting out and performing in front of lots of people you feel inspired,” she said.

“I do feel a bit crazy for doing this but I think it needs to be done.”

While Ms Flood doesn’t come from a particularly musical family, she said her parents were incredibly supportive of her ambitions, and she hopes to offer the same level of support to young musicians in the academy.

Along with after-school lessons, Ms Flood said there would also be a travelling day academy where musicians would travel around local schools to teach music lessons.

She said 13 schools from Napier, Hastings and even Waipukurau have already signed up.

The academy’s doors will open on Wednesday February 1. More information can be found at www.napiermusicacademy.co.nz.