When Te Pūkenga dropped the bombshell news, early in 2023, that the flood-damaged Auckland MAINZ campus was not ever going to be re-opened, a group of dismayed MAINZ employees came together to mount a rearguard action in the hope of overturning that decision.

It was a serious ‘save-our-school’ campaign, resulting in two very substantial crafted submissions about why and how MAINZ should continue, with letters of support from dozens of NZ music luminaries, but the die had been cast. No reversal came, and over time (after some individual qualification commitments had been met) the jobs and the 27-year old Auckland-based Music & Audio Institute of New Zealand became history.

Among the MAINZ staff who fought hard to keep the school alive were jazz pianist Dr. Mark Baynes and drummer Josh Sorenson, both highly regarded musicians and also excellent music educators. Deeply concerned about the loss of opportunities for vocational music provision in the country, they have since established a new tertiary education organisation, or Private Training Establishment (PTE) called Let’s Go.

Joining those two practitioners as co-director and the vital third leg of Let’s Go, is Dr Christine Fenton who has extensive history and accolades in education leadership and management, across a variety of subject areas and academic levels. Among that experience she was directly involved with the academic administration of MAINZ as General Manager for 18 months, just ahead of the peppercorn transfer of the institute’s ownership to SIT, which happened in 2018.

“Basically, Mark and Josh knew that I know the NZQA world, and all that kind of stuff,” Fenton starts. “So when that group first talked about the options to resurrect MAINZ, I said, ‘Why don’t you form a PTE? And later, when Mark came to see me saying they needed help forming a PTE I said, ‘Okay, I can do that.’ So that’s basically how it all started!’

Creating a whole new PTE (other Tāmaki Makaurau examples include SAE and EXCEL), especially without core funding, was by any measure a crazy long shot. Baynes says they just kept working with it, making progress almost without thinking about the outcome. 

“That was my experience. I’ve been doing other things to generate income and solidify my plans, but the same time it was worth pursuing. I think that when we boiled it down to the three of us, that’s when it felt like we had the right people in the room. And we still do think that, whenever there’s something that I feel I’ve got a weakness at, these guys always have that covered, and hopefully vice versa.” 

In March 2024, perhaps with tongues a little bit in their cheeks, the three formed a new business entity called Mainz Ltd*. The meaning of the acronym is relevant for their planned learning entity, but as MAINZ Christchurch is still operating as an arm of SIT, some legal caution was needed. Fenton then started in earnest on the paperwork. A quick squizz at the Let’s Go website (Letsgomusic.ac.nz) will give an idea of the sort of details that needed to be sorted and documented – working essentially as volunteers, they faced a huge and daunting iceberg of information and decision-making.

Fenton says her daughter is a MAINZ graduate, and she knows how difficult it has been for her and peers to break into the industry – that young musicians need support and help. 

“So my interest in being involved is partly that. And secondly, I worked with these guys, I know what good it was doing, and so I want to support this new opportunity. The PTE sector flourishes when it’s really good at the thing that it does, and it does that really well. That’s what MAINZ was, except as part of a bigger polytech. I always thought MAINZ should have been a PTE, it was kind of sitting in the wrong sector, or with the wrong kind of ownership. 

“My skills were important in getting through the approvals process. As soon as we’re delivering it’s going to be these guys, I will just monitor and keep the paperwork going, processes and all that kind of stuff.” 

A registration application to NZQA was subsequently submitted in July last year, with final approval received mid-February 2025. Originally badged as Let’s Go Music, they came to realise that might become limiting in any future moves toward audio education, live sound training etc., so Let’s Go it is.

“Although we are registered we are not yet TEC (Tertiary Education Commission) funded,” Fenton notes on the question of fees. “The TEC says if you can fly for a couple of years by yourself then they will look at future funding. Not having funding means we have to charge higher fees, and we don’t really want to do that because that puts up barriers for students. So we’re actively seeking charity partners, or partners for scholarships for students.” 

They are also petitioning and applying to TEC, but she points out that the Crown agency has been reducing funding in the area of music and creative arts, with it mostly going to universities – not the right place for the sort of students that Let’s Go want to attract and to help.

“Also, without TEC funding the students can’t get loans and allowances, so we have still got some battles. We’re strategically planning to start slow and small, and get some good, serious runs on the board that will all help. We do intend to have 150 learners with us in a couple years, and going right through to a bachelor degree. That’s the development strategy within a few years.”

Bearing in mind that MAINZ, much-loved as it was by students, staff and industry, had failed as a business model, the Let’s Go directors had to first agree what sustainable provision of music training looks like. And what necessary aspects that didn’t work well before they could approach differently. 

“We have had to be brave and kind of rethink some of the things that everyone’s always done,” says Baynes, who had been Programme Manager of Music and then of the Bachelor of Musical Arts at MAINZ from 2016 onwards. “How can it be done differently and understanding the sustainability issues that basically led to its demise, or at least perception of sustainability issues that led to its demise.”

That basically means the annual income from student numbers vs the cost of providing their tuition, and here’s where Let’s Go begins to reveal its differences. Being a private organisation they don’t need to have an academic board, explains Fenton. 

“We do need to have academic processes, but we also don’t have to actually have a physical site. So we don’t need to have a building that we pay rent for and so on. There are places set up for music all around that we are finding relationships and partnerships with. Not necessarily schools as such, but rehearsal rooms, recording studios, council-owned spaces where local musicians already work from are dotted around the motu. So we don’t necessarily need to have the huge investment of things like buildings to still be able to operate, and we think that is a model that can go national.”

The first such partnership arrangement set in place is with Auckland Council’s OMAC (Otara Music Arts Centre). When the first intake of Let’s Go students start their studies towards a Music Certificate (Creativity) on 28 July this year, it will be at OMAC. 

Baynes describes it as a blended delivery model, with three days learning on campus and one to one and a half days online. Experience gained through Covid means they know what aspects they need to cover in-person and what they can teach online. 

Developing the performance-centric programmes that will provide a practical pathway to a degree started with a redesign of the Level 4 (Certificate) curriculum taught at MAINZ, traditionally a year-long program at all NZ music polytechs. 

“When people came in for a degree it’s always difficult to cater for those with real ability in one area, but have gaps in their music knowledge. In the past we’ve had this Cert program which lasted a year – but as a result had low completion rates. It was stretched and it didn’t need to be stretched. So we’ve created a six-month program that we believe will be an excellent entry point into music education, regardless of ability (within reason), and a really good feeder into the degree.” 

Josh Sorenson is really enthusiastic about the new 16-week performance-focused programs they will launch in July. 

“We’ve really honed it to what we feel is just going to help the students achieve. You can come study with us for six months and get all that learning. We’ve also got plans for other short courses leading to micro credentials and things like that, which will run separately to this program. 

“The first thing they will do is a 15-credit block we’ve called a Musicians Toolkit. And that toolkit is literally around plugging those gaps we’ve seen in the past about what musicians need to know to thrive. Basics like band etiquette, or what’s needed in a decent chart. After that four week block they will have those skills, and all the blocks will lead towards the same goal of performance credits.”

They’re hoping to enrol 14 students in the first course. 

“We want to start slow and do it well and build up that credibility and the capability,” says Fenton. “And we don’t want to grow too quickly and make life hard for ourselves. We want to do things well, and we’re gonna grow slowly. 

“The plan is that all things going well the Level 5 Diploma will probably start in February 2026, and we will then be working on the approval for our degree, and hopefully students can move straight on into the degree. But it just takes a little bit of time. NCQA need us to be successful and lower levels before they think about a degree. So it’s just a progression.”

The Let’s Go website shows several other initiatives in the works including a bespoke Band Mentoring package, Masterclasses, Weekend Warriors and a proposed Music Basics for Primary Teachers short course. It’s bold and ambitious stuff, all stemming from the experiences these musicians-turned-educators, and literally thousands of students, shared at MAINZ over its 27 years. 

*Subsequent to the publishing of this article in May 2025, Mainz Ltd was renamed as Let’s Go Educate Ltd.