The news was announced at a function chaired by Mr Chin and attended by about 50 people at the Glenroy Auditorium, Dunedin.
The foundation, formed in 1991 and previously with four New Zealand branches, awards up to $160,000 each year to support emerging artists through a series of prizes, scholarships and other programmes. Mr Chin urged people to support the branch.
He later added in an interview that Dunedin and Otago had already produced a series of fine singers and musicians and the city could become the "cultural capital" of New Zealand, with the new branch providing crucial support for emerging artists.
Judy Bellingham, William Evans senior lecturer in voice at the University of Otago and branch chairwoman, said she became involved solely because she was passionate that the area's young musicians and artists "should not be disadvantaged by not being able to apply to the foundation for funding because there was no branch here".
"I am equally determined that, in the current economic climate, the arts should not fall by the wayside," she said.
Claire Barton, a mezzo-soprano, a Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist and former Otago Daily Times Aria competition winner, sang Softly Awakes My Heart, from Samson and Delilah, by Saint Saens.
Dame Malvina, an international opera singer, sang Love Live Forever from Paganini, by Lehar, and O Mio Bannino Caro, from Gianni Schicchi, by Puccini, with Prof Terence Dennis accompanying both singers on piano.
Dame Malvina said any money raised for the foundation in Otago would be spent in Otago.
