The Tokoroa tinkler LINN'S MUSICAL LEGACY

She has a dedicated fan club, which includes the Governor-General

- Rebekah Hebenton

From the day her parents brought home a second-hand piano and taught her to play, Linn Lorkin dreamed of being a performer. Her only problem was, as a young girl growing up on a dairy farm near Tokoroa in the 1940s, it didn’t seem like it could ever happen.

Now in her eighties, she has performed on stages around the world and is about to release the definitive collection of her decades of music, 101 Songs: The Linn Lorkin Songbook.

“It’s a legacy project,” laughs Linn. “I thought if worse comes to worst, it can at least go into the Turnbull Library!”

“I don’t have proper charts for any of my songs, so if someone’s playing my music, they’re struggling to read my scribblings. I thought it’d be nice to have a book where I can say, ‘Turn to page eight!’ and they’d know what to play.”

Linn’s legacy in music is so vast, she has fans from all walks of life - including Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro, who couldn’t hide her excitement when she made Linn a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2023 for her services to music.