Leadership member turns up the music in the Remarkables
Leadership Network member Rakuto Kurano was born in Japan, spent part of his childhood in Jakarta, and now lives in a small stone cottage on a sheep station just outside Queenstown, at the foot of the Remarkables. Music has been a defining force in his life. He sees it as a powerful bridge between people and cultures: “Music can bring countries together in ways a conversation around a table sometimes can’t,” he says.
Rakuto: ""The realisation that I've come to in recent years is that I actually love people more than music itself.” (Photo: Heather Joy Milne)
"The realisation that I've come to in recent years is that I actually love people more than music itself.”
It’s a surprising thing to hear from a man who has spent his life mastering the violin, piano, and conductor’s baton.
But for Rakuto Kurano, what he loves isn’t music itself - it’s what music allows him to do: connect with people.
He moved from Japan to Christchurch in 2008, living there for 17 years before a unique opportunity pulled him south to Queenstown last April.
Long before that, as a child he spent two years in Jakarta, his first experience of life outside Japan and a place where he saw both extreme wealth and deep poverty side by side.
Now he lives in a small cottage on Remarkables Station.
Rakuto now lives in a cottage on Remarkables station near Queenstown
The view is “magnificent”, but the arrangement behind it is what makes it special.
The Jardine family gave 900 hectares of the farm to the QEII National Trust for conservation, and donated the lease of the cottage to the Turn Up the Music School.
It’s a way to get musicians out of the big cities and into the basin to teach.
“The fact that I am able to live in the music cottage is because I am a teacher at Turn Up the Music School,” Rakuto says.
The school’s ethos is simple: give as many young people as possible the chance to pick up an instrument and see if it sticks.
For Rakuto, it’s also reshaped his own everyday life.
“It’s very different to Christchurch,” he says.
“I really appreciate the change… I feel more - I don’t know, ‘free’ isn’t quite the right word - but it’s a very lovely place for me.”
As a musician, he describes himself as a “performer-composer” – someone who doesn’t just write music and hand it over, but he insists on being on stage bringing it to life.
One career highlight was touring his own work, Concerto Grosso, with a Baroque ensemble across 11 concerts around the country, before later leading it with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
“I love performing my own compositions,” he says.
“I love being part of the work.”
Rakuto: "I tell music students that establishing a career in the arts is 90 percent marketing and 10 percent actual ability.” (Photos: Heather Joy Milne)
Rakuto is shaping how students build a career in the arts.
He’s a big believer in what he calls “alternative education” - the skills you don’t get at school.
“I tell music students that establishing a career in the arts is 90 percent marketing and 10 percent actual ability,” he says.
Back at university, he noticed his music timetable was half-empty compared to engineering students.
Instead of just practising, he spent that time teaching himself business, law, and finance.
That learning helped him establish his career in New Zealand.
It’s also why Magic Carpet Music Trust exists. Around 2019, he grew tired of waiting for opportunities.
“I realised it’s pointless just waiting at home, refreshing my email to wait for the next opportunity to perform,” he says.
“I thought, ‘No, that’s silly. I’m going to start organising my own concerts, because we can’t just be waiting for opportunities.’”
He teamed up with Lyn Milne in 2022, and since then they’ve staged 56 concerts across New Zealand, getting young musicians out of practice rooms and onto real stages.
It’s about creating opportunities rather than waiting for doors to open.
Rakuto: "I’m going to start organising my own concerts, because we can’t just be waiting for opportunities." (Photos: Heather Joy Milne)
The same sense of agency is what drew Rakuto to the Asia New Zealand Foundation Leadership Network.
“I don’t often get to meet people from other industries,” he says.
Being part of the network has widened his perspective beyond the music bubble, letting him see what others are doing and how connections are built across sectors.
Born in Japan and now firmly rooted in Aotearoa, he’s particularly interested in how New Zealand connects with Asia, and Japan in particular.
He sees arts and culture as a powerful way to build bridges across borders, just as readily as formal meetings or trade delegations.
Rakuto: "I just love interacting with people and making things happen." (Photo: Heather Joy Milne)
He points to a favourite example: a video of the Japanese Prime Minister playing the drums alongside the South Korean president – a light-hearted moment, he says, that shows how music can bring countries together in ways a conversation around a table sometimes can’t.
From his cottage under the Remarkables, Rakuto still composes and performs, but his focus is on the people.
Whether it’s a primary school student in Queenstown or a young violinist on a Magic Carpet tour, he’s making spaces for them to step into.
“I just love interacting with people and making things happen,” he says.
The Asia New Zealand Foundation Leadership Network equips the next generation of Kiwi leaders to excel in Asia. We provide members with the connections, knowledge and confidence to lead New Zealand’s future relationship with the region.
