Acknowledging 21 years of support from the Wiri Licensing Trust and funding partners.
The relationship first began in 2001 with funding obtained for an oboe. Special thanks to Alan Johnson, Trust Chair of the day, who was instrumental in supporting the expansion the instrument teaching programme—providing hundreds of primary and intermediate school students instruments and music lessons.
Unfortunately in 2022 the funding relationship ended and the society had to downsize our operations—resulting in the closure of the teaching programme at Manurewa Central School.
We continue our work at two schools in Manurewa providing affordable music tuition to young people.
Contact Joseph Allan, the conductor of the Manukau Youth Orchestra since 2000 and primary musical instrument tutor for all orchestra & band programmes.
joseph@myo.nz
021 672 437
Many years ago Joseph's grandfather gave him a violin for his seventh birthday. He also started saxophone when he was a bit older. In the 1980s he played in various school orchestras & bands, APPA Orchestra, Manukau Youth Orchestra, Papakura Civic Orchestra and Auckland Youth Symphonic Band.
In 1987 he started teaching at the Kedgley Music Centre. He kept this part time job for the next 25 years teaching wind and brass for the first half and strings the latter. During the first six years he taught flute. In the mid to late 1990s switched to teaching saxophone, trumpet and trombone as well as taking over the Kedgley Symphonic Band. To broaden the sound of the Kedgley Symphonic Band he taught some of the students less common instruments such as euphonium, horn and tuba. In the late 1990s he started up the Kedgley Music Centre Stage Band.
In the 1990s he played violin, french horn, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, tuba in the Papakura Civic Orchestra, Auckland Youth Symphonic Band, Auckland Wind Orchestra and Auckland University Stage Band. He also guest conductor of the Auckland Youth Symphonic Band under Rod McLeay.
In 2000 he re-established the Manukau Youth Orchestra and switched to teaching violin at Kedgley. From 2005 to 2007 he ran a string programme as part of the MYO where he taught violin, viola, cello and double bass at Greenmeadows Intermediate School and Manurewa Intermediate School.
In addition to his work at Kedgley, Joseph taught clarinet in the 1990s at the Manurewa Music School based at Greenmeadows Intermediate School. He also took the Jazz Band at Papatoetoe High School and did some relieving at Pakuranga College on trumpet, saxophone and clarinet in the late 2000s.
At the end of 2011 he finished up at the Kedgley Music Centre to concentrate on establishing a new string programme at a local primary school. At the beginning of 2012 he started the string programme at Clendon Park Primary with forty students then half way through 2014 expanded the teaching programme into three other schools teaching 150 students throughout Manurewa.