Our Story

I pressed my first piano key when I was five. I don't remember the note, but I remember the feeling — that a sound I made could fill a whole room.

That feeling never left. Piano became saxophone, saxophone became flute, and somewhere along the way music stopped being a hobby and started being the lens through which I understood everything. I taught piano for eight years. I wrote and performed with a band. I've had the privilege of being a published artist. Music has shaped how I think, how I work, how I connect with people — it rewired me, and I'm better for it.

Katie is American, a professional oboist, the kind of player who can make a single note break your heart. I'm from the UK. We chose New Zealand — deliberately, joyfully — because this country and its people grabbed hold of us and wouldn't let go. The culture, the community, the way people look after each other here. We didn't just move to New Zealand. We committed to it. And Prelude is part of how we want to give back.

But we kept seeing the same thing.

A kid would light up in a lesson. You could see it — that exact moment the music clicked. And then the conversation would shift to instruments, and the light would dim. Three thousand dollars for an oboe. Fifteen hundred for a decent flute. Parents doing the maths in their heads, wondering if this was a phase. Kids sensing the hesitation and learning, too young, that wanting something and getting it aren't the same thing.

We've both felt that sting. And we've both watched it happen to families here more times than we can count.

New Zealand has a particular problem with instrument access. We're a small market at the bottom of the world. Stock is limited, prices are high, and the options for families who just want their kid to try are painfully few. Too many beginners are stuck with borrowed school instruments held together with rubber bands and hope, or parents are pressured into buying something expensive before anyone knows if it'll stick.

It's a terrible way to start a musical life.

So we built Prelude. The idea is simple: getting started with music should be easy. Find a teacher, rent an instrument, start playing. No five-figure commitment, no overwhelm, no guesswork. We lease quality instruments to students at a price that lets families say yes instead of not yet, and we connect them with teachers who can guide those first steps — all in one place.

That's it. No catch. Just good instruments, great teachers, and a clear path from curiosity to first note.

Because we remember ours. And every kid deserves the chance to remember theirs.