New Amped Music Project Coordinator An Original Participant

Dunedin Fringe Arts
Trust is super excited to announce that Zac Nicholls is
taking up the role as Coordinator for the 2026 Amped Music
Project.

Amped is a four-week music mentorship
programme for high school students during August and
September. It began life as the Chicks Music Project in 2010
– and Zac was one of those very early
participants.

Zac works as a guitar and drums teacher
at Abbotsford Primary School, as well as regularly acting as
a recording and mixing engineer for local bands, such as
Dale Kerrigan, Bathysphere, Hōhā and Koizilla, as well as
national acts. Zac has also written and directed plays at
the Playhouse Theatre and the Fortune Theatre and holds a
Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies/Music from the
University of Otago. With collaborator Alex Martyn, he
recently presented Ngahau Tene, a bilingual
improvised gig/show at Dunedin Fringe Festival, which was
nominated for five awards, winning the Music
Award.

Zac says, “I’m so excited to be on board
with this incredible project. Without being involved in
Amped when I was at school, I would never be where I am as a
musician and I wouldn’t have half of the friendships I now
cherish. I’m looking forward to providing that for the
next generation of tamariki.”

Dunedin Fringe Arts
Trust Producer Vanessa Beck says, “We’re so chuffed to
have Zac on board. He has so many great ideas bubbling
already and the fact that he was one of the earliest
participants of the programme, and has also been a workshop
host, really felt good.”

Amped began life as the
Chicks Music Project, established by Volunteer South as a
holiday programme for high school music students. When they
no longer had capacity to run it, the Dunedin Fringe Arts
Trust stepped in in 2013 to ensure the opportunity for our
young people remained available.

Amped Music Project
enables participants to explore their identity as artists,
to begin to develop their music careers, to know how to
build on their Amped experience if they wish to pursue music
as a career or hobby and to make strong connections with
their peers and with the wider Ōtepoti music community. It
focuses on building a safe and inclusive environment for
young people as they enter the music industry.

Amped
includes workshops and all-ages gigs (as well as other
opportunities such as recording sessions) over four
weekends. The programme connects young musicians with
Dunedin’s music and creative scenes with experienced
musicians (including Amped alumni) engaged as guest tutors
and mentors.

Previous Amped Coordinators have included
Jess Young, Simon Wallace, Dallas Synnott, Nadia Reid, and
most recently Craig Monk with Natasha Griffiths. The DFAT
team acknowledges the huge contribution these people have
made over the years, establishing, activating and supporting
the all-ages live music scene in Dunedin.

To support
the programme this year, Amped is running a crowdfunding
campaign to enable the wider community to contribute to the
programme. More information is at https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/amped-2026.

© Scoop Media