Opening Notes

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Opening Notes, or the Opening Notes Project, is a cultural initiative begun in Wellington, New Zealand. It involves the annual compilation of local music, photography, and literary contributions in the production of a music CD and booklet. This Opening Notes package is then given free of charge, as a welcome from the older generation, to each of the 6,000 babies born in the region annually. Distribution occurs ante-natally, the day of the birth, through a partnerhip with the regional hospital facilities and birthing centres. As a reuslt, the parents of the newborn go home with the Opening Notes package in hand. There is intentionally no commercial activity associated with the Opening Notes Project, as the produced package is meant as a unique creative gift from one generation to the next. The project was formally launched on 13 July 2006, when the first of 6,000 Opening Notes packages was delivered by Wellington Mayor, Kerry Prendergast.

The Opening Notes Project was engineered by Eric Vaughn Holowacz, Arts Programmes and Services Manager, Wellington City Council. The inaugural effort, Opening Notes 2006/07, was developed between 2003-2006, and involved hundreds of creative people, music-makers, record labels, district health boards, and non-profit orgnaisations in Wellington Region. In 2005 Holowacz forged a unique public-private partnership with Wellington Saatchi & Saatchi, and general manager Jonathan Russell, whose creative and account staff have driven the concept development and implementation ever since. New Zealand music industry impresario Blink, of A Low Hum also served as a key creative consultant. In 2007, the Opening Notes Charitable Trust was established to ensure ongoing support and development of this cultural wellbeing project.

Opening Notes continues to involve close partnerships with SOUNZ: the Centre for New Zealand Music, Wellington-based record labels, RadioNZ Capital & Coast District Health Board, Hutt Valley District Health Board, The Neonatal Trust, recording studios and producers, and hundreds of musicians in the New Zealand capital. The result is an unequalled gift of welcome and cultural contents, transferred to all new arrivals in the region. The package and music are intended to foster a life-long reflection of cultural identity, sense of place, and home. An Opening Notes compilation and package is now produced each year, as a cultural heirloom for each of the recipients and their families.

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[edit] Participating Musicians