Wai-te-ata Music Press

Wai-te-ata Music Press is one of New Zealand’s largest and longest-running publishers of sheet music.

Based at Victoria University of Wellington, the press was established by Douglas Lilburn in 1967 as a non-profit ‘composer facility’, producing inexpensive editions of New Zealand music for performance and study, and this continues to be the Press’s main function. From 1981, when composer Jack Body took up the editorship, Wai-te-ata Music Press has become the largest publisher of New Zealand music, with over 250 scores in its catalogue. Associate Professor Michael Norris took over the editorship of Wai-te-ata Press in 2013 following Jack Body’s retirement.

Nearly 300 scores from more than 70 composers are represented, spanning several generations from Lilburn, Farquhar, Carr and Pruden through to the next generation of composers such as Dylan Lardelli, Michael Norris and Salina Fisher. While many of the early scores were originally published as facsimiles of composer manuscripts, most have now been computer-set. Sets of performance parts for selected chamber works are available for hire.

Wai-te-ata Music Press has also released 13 CDs to match works in its catalogue. The ‘Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music’ was launched in 1999 with A Violin and Piano Recital (Mark Menzies and Dan Poynton) and has presented Composer Portraits of Ross Harris, Jack Body, Gillian Whitehead, John Rimmer and Jenny McLeod. The latest CD in the series is a collection of works for piano, four hands.

Submissions and recommendations are vetted annually through peer review by an Artistic Advisory Committee, comprising three senior New Zealand composers, which provides quality assurance processes to the Editor.

Editor: Michael Norris

Assistant Editor: Alistair Gilkison