Gisborne Girls' High band members Farhat Ali (left) and Willow Roberts get valuable tips from Annie Crummer, standing next to music teacher Jane Egan, as part of the Musicians Mentoring in Schools Programme held at the school last week. Photo / Tamsin Wilson
Gisborne Girls' High band members Farhat Ali (left) and Willow Roberts get valuable tips from Annie Crummer, standing next to music teacher Jane Egan, as part of the Musicians Mentoring in Schools Programme held at the school last week. Photo / Tamsin Wilson
Gisborne Girls’ High musos will head into the East Coast heat of the Smokefreerockquest secondary school competition next week on the back of invaluable advice from a Kiwi music icon.
The Musicians Mentoring in Schools Programme brought Annie Crummer to Gisborne last week as part of New Zealand Music Month.
Crummer worked with several Year 12 and 13 bands at Gisborne Girls’ High School in preparation for the Smokefreerockquest secondary schools’ competition – the East Coast/Tairāwhiti heat to be held at War Memorial Theatre on Friday, May 15.
Annie Crummer talks to Gisborne Girls' High students, with head of music Jane Egan beside her. Photo / Tamsin Wilson
The singer/songwriter has a long association with the college, having worked with music students there for more than 10 years.
“I love it. I always look forward to learning from them and I must say I was lucky that Miss Janie [GGHS head of music Jane Egan] sent me their songs ahead of time, so I’m familiar with them,” Crummer told the Gisborne Herald .
“I just love what it does to my brain. I get ideas and come up with ways to address the songs, but I only offer suggestions. At the end of the day, they’re their songs.”
When the Herald visited, Crummer was working with five-piece band Eunoia made up of three guitarists, a drummer and a singer/violinist.
The students were working on a song called Midnight in Paris, written by Karli Bartlett, which they will be performing at Rockquest.
She offered feedback and suggestions and joined in with a few harmonies, her powerful and distinctive voice giving depth to the song.
Annie Crummer (second left) with, from left, Sharfaye Dela Torre, Crummer, Karli Bartlett, Lou Mangco, Chloe Olangca and Princess Estrada. Photo / Kim Parkinson
“I just go by what I feel and hear and address the songs appropriately, musically,” Crummer said.
“The reason I love getting the songs ahead of time is because even though I’m here for a couple of days, time is crucial because you’ve got bumper-to-bumper bands and I really want to maximise what I can offer to them.”
Four of the members of Eunoia play violin and are in the school’s chamber music groups.
Egan said that because they were a small high school, there was only a limited pool of musicians, so they ended up having to do everything.
“They’re all in the orchestra, they all do chamber music, they all do Rockquest and they all do the Play It Strange songwriting competition.
‘We’ve got 14 chamber music groups and the only other school that beats us in New Zealand is Burnside High in Christchurch, and that’s a school of 3000."
GGHS has 14 groups in this year’s Rockquest, as well as soloists and duos.
Gisborne Girls' High School students Miracle Eccles (left), Emilia Ilin and Naomi Campbell perform during the Musicians Mentoring in Schools Programme held at the school last week. Photo / Tamsin Wilson
Crummer said the state-of-the-art music facilities offered by GGHS were a far cry from what she had at her high school, Avondale College in West Auckland.
She remembers watching recordings of Ready to Roll, a weekly music countdown programme, in her music class.
The Musicians Mentoring in Schools Programme is one of many things happening across the country for New Zealand Music Month.
Through interactive workshops, mentors support teachers while building students’ skills in composition, performance and production, and inspiring future pathways in music.
New Zealand Music Month features a programme of events, collaborations and community-led activations across Aotearoa throughout May, reinforcing the importance of local music and the spaces that sustain it.
“From Split Enz to Mim Jensen, there is a huge amount of amazing local music happening across the motu during Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa,” says Cath Andersen of the NZ Music Commission.
“From Aotearoa legends Fat Freddy’s Drop at the [Auckland] Town Hall or emerging stars like Ivy & Pearly* on their co-headline South Island tour, there will be hundreds of opportunities to see amazing sounds in amazing spaces this May.
“We’d encourage everyone to get amongst it and support local artists.”
Crummer was last in Gisborne in September for the Tairāwhiti Arts Festival, which she headlined with her dad, Papa Will Crummer, at the War Memorial Theatre.
Of Cook Island and Tahitian descent, Crummer rose to prominence with the group Netherworld Dancing Toys, whose song For Today won Single of the Year at the 1985 New Zealand Music Awards.
She was one of the founding members of all-female group When The Cat’s Away, who topped the Kiwi charts with the song Melting Pot and won Group of the Year at the 1989 NZ Music Awards.
Crummer released her first solo album, Language, in 1992 and won Best Female Artist at the 1993 NZ Music Awards.
