Funding Secured for Christchurch School of Music

“This is a great day for music education in Aotearoa New Zealand, we are so delighted to get this boost for our project to get a permanent home,” said Celia Stewart, the music director of the Christchurch School of Music | Te Kura Puoro (CSM).

“At a time when arts funding in our country is under pressure, we are delighted that the City Council recognises the value of music education for a thriving community. This is the time when the kids who choose music at school or in the weekend and the adults and families who join or learn with us, get the support they deserve.”

On 26 June, 2026, the Christchurch City Council voted to grant the CSM $4M towards building a permanent home for the School as part of its Annual Plan 2026/27. This is contingent on the CSM raising $4M in match funding leaving CSM to raise $4.6M.

“Our building plans are well developed, and we will be ready to go on those plans once we have completed our fundraising to reach our target of $12.6M in total,” said Ms Stewart

After 70 years of providing quality music education to all ages from babies to retirees, the CSM will finally be able to settle with a permanent home in the Arts Precinct.

CSM has around 1,500 enrolments at any one time with students learning a wide range of instruments and participating in symphony orchestras, concert bands chamber groups, choirs, rock bands, jazz bands, wind ensembles, percussion ensembles, ukulele, and guitar groups. There is also an outreach programme in strings, band, ukulele, and recorder to local schools.

Whether singing or learning an instrument, music has proven benefits for all ages. Using every part of the brain, it supports children’s social, physical, emotional, intellectual and language development. Despite this, music is severely under-rated and under-resourced in schools, and parents must look elsewhere for reasonably priced, quality music experiences for their children. “CSM provides excellent and well supported tutors who instil in children a lifelong love of making music,” says Ms Celia Stewart.

Making music has also been shown to support healthy aging and is something many adults have discovered or rediscovered as a source of richness and joy in their lives. There is nowhere else in New Zealand that offers music tuition and opportunities for playing at all levels of experience and competence no matter how old you are.

Some CSM graduates have gone on to perform on the world stage and CSM is proud to claim singer Bic Runga, clarinettist Mark Walton, and violinist Benjamin Morrison among those who credit CSM with supporting their early development. Graduates also include music teachers, composers, and musical theatre actors, as well as professionals in other fields who continue to enrich their lives with playing music.

Before the earthquakes, CSM shared rented space in the Music Centre on Barbadoes Street. However, it has been scattered across the city ever since and has been operating out of portacabins and industrial offices and warehouses and using local primary schools, churches and other spaces for rehearsals, performances, and administration.

“The new central city building, accessible to all suburbs by public and private transport, will open up music education to the whole city and allow CSM to be the hub for community music education,” said Ms Stewart.