Ukuleles signed by international celebrities for auction

7 NOVEMBER - MEDIA RELEASE

Embargoed until 6pm

Ukuleles signed by international celebrities for auction

“The Junior Lyric Comp”

Money raised from ukuleles signed by international musicians and stars including rock band Green Day, Flight of the Conchords, Ozzy Osbourne, Dan Aykroyd, Barry Gibb, Sam Neill & Tim Finn and others will help children from low decile primary schools feel empowered to write their own words to a song. The most special song written will be chosen from all entries by judge ANNAH MAC, with music composed to accompany the lyrics by Annah herself. She will then perform the new song at the winning school. Play It Strange Trust has named this event the Junior Lyric Comp.

Ukuleles were the instrument of choice by Play It Strange Trust, a charitable organisation working to encourage young New Zealanders to develop interests and skills in song writing and musical performance. The Trust believes ukuleles provide a wonderful introduction to the musical world for young people, as the instruments are perfectly sized for little fingers, inexpensive and an ideal tool for song writing as you can sing while you play.

Since 2004, Play It Strange has distributed 3,200 ukuleles to NZ schools. They also hold national songwriting workshops and competitions with children from as young as five years old to teenage years. Mike Chunn, chief executive of Play It Strange Trust, says that music speaks to everyone and can help a young person feel connected and relevant.

“When children are able to express themselves through writing lyrics, they have a chance to find an escape from the complexities of life, stimulate their imaginations and also contribute something meaningful by setting words to music. This programme will help them gain confidence in their own writing ability and possibly be able to tackle tougher things that might come their way,” says Mike.

Play it Strange have partnered with online charitable trust Social Angels* to raise enough money to hold lyric writing workshops with at least 80 low decile primary schools across most of the North Island. Funding this cause will enable many thousands of children to take part for free. Annah Mac and other Kiwi songwriters and musicians will travel around the central North Island – from New Plymouth across to Napier – and up as far as Cape Reinga, to lead these workshops and encourage children to be bold and creative music makers.

Social Angels have also collected a number of these specially signed ukuleles from Rod Stewart, Barry Gibb, Matthew Morrison of Glee fame, and American actress Sharon Lawrence as well as a fine art guitar print created and signed by Leonard Cohen, to be auctioned on Trade Me for a 12-day auction beginning Wednesday 7 November and running until Monday 19 November. Social Angels hopes to raise as much money as possible to fund these workshops, ensuring every dollar goes straight to Play it Strange Trust for this cause. Trade Me is also waiving all fees and helping to promote the auctions. Social Angels is able to be contacted to accept international bids for Trade Me via this email: joy@socialangels.org.nz.

Visit the auction listings at http://trade.me/social-angels

Read more about the cause at http://www.socialangels.org.nz/playitstrange


ENDS

Additional information
Social Angels is an online charitable giving community serving purely New Zealand causes. Their causes reach across a wide and varied range of organisations and communities to help New Zealanders in need. A growing number of charities supported by Social Angels are featured on the website and include Sir Peter Blake Trust, Sands, Child Matters, TYLA and True Colours. Every cent raised through their online donations goes directly to causes, which is their ‘100% Promise’.

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