Anika Moa & Opshop join forces for music charity

News Release
December 1, 2008

Anika Moa & Opshop join forces for music charity

Two of the biggest names in Kiwi music have recorded the Dave Dobbyn classic 'Beside You' to raise funds for the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre.

Anika Moa & Opshop’s cover version of the hit single debuts on MORE FM at 7.30 Monday 1 December and is available for purchase the following week.

The single will sell through The Warehouse for $4.99 and as an online download from Amplifier, iTunes, Digirama, VodafoneVmusic store, and Telecom for $1.75, with the retailers donating every cent raised from sales of the track to the charity.

“The Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre does amazing work helping children to communicate through music,” says Anika Moa. “I have always wanted to help kids using my music so when I was approached and asked to support this, I jumped at the chance. Recording and releasing a single was the obvious way to go.”

Music promoter and Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre chairman Campbell Smith approached Anika and Opshop with the idea of a charity single. The artists were presented with a short list of classic Kiwi songs, as voted for by MORE FM listeners, and after much lively debate they chose to record the Dobbyn track.

The single was recorded in just one day at Auckland’s York Street Recording Studios, with all the production time and costs covered by donations from the industry.

The proceeds are earmarked to help fund music therapy activities at the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre. For many children with special needs, music helps reduce a sense of isolation and creates new possibilities for participation in the world and a more creative life.

Opshop’s Jason Kerrison says the music industry is proud to support a charity that uses music to help connect with children who struggle to communicate through traditional means.

“It means a lot to us as artists and musicians to be able to raise the much needed funds,” Kerrison says. “The money raised through the sale of this single will go a long way in further funding much needed therapy.”

Anika Moa and Opshop also form part of the bill - with Dave Dobbyn - for the MORE FM Winery Tour which kicks off at Ascension Wine Estate on Feb 6 and concludes on Sunday 1 March at Millbrook Resort in Queenstown.

ABOUT THE RAUKATAUTI MUSIC THERAPY CENTRE

The Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre (RMTC) in Auckland opened on 18 March 2004 and is New Zealand’s first music therapy centre. The centre provides music therapy for special needs children of school age and younger.

Music therapy is about building bridges of communication through music and actively engaging individuals in potential growth, development and change through the power of music. For many people, music helps reduce a sense of isolation and creates new possibilities for participation in the world and a more creative life.

For more information, please visit www.rmtc.org.nz or contact 0900 MUSICT to make an automatic $20 telephone donation

ENDS

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