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IN THIS UPDATE:
GRANTS - RECENT HIGHLIGHTS AND IMPACT
July was a very busy month for our musicians! Our grants supported twenty-six live concerts in 20 different UK locations, and two new recordings. Five new episodes from Ensemble Augelletti’s brilliant ‘Pick a Card’ series began streaming.
The Brook Street Band released the world première professional recording of John Frederick Lampe’s ’The Dragon of Wantley’ on Resonus Classics, available here. Please scroll down to July Project Highlights to hear an extract from this 18th century comic opera.
The Linarol Consort of Viols toured their ‘Epitaph for a Green Lover’ programme to Wales, the Scottish Borders, Glasgow and Somerset. This tour is a great example of the way our grantees create opportunities to inspire the next generation of musicians wherever they go, incorporating free schools performances and workshops for young players into their tours. The following excerpt from their post-project report addresses the impact of our grant:
"Without Continuo Foundation’s grant, putting on a tour of 16th century music played on renaissance viols with 5 professional musicians would be simply impossible. As a relatively new ensemble, the grant has given us the confidence to reach new audiences and venues. The development of our tour with Héloïse Bernard is a direct result of the 2021 Josquin 500 project funded by Continuo Foundation in 2021... Having such a vibrant organisation, which not only supports financially, but also invests so much time and passion into promoting the performances, is wonderful. Thank you so much for your support."
The impact of Continuo Foundation's activity to date:
£301,700 disbursed to 46 different ensembles 1,212 musician engagements since April 2021
589 different individual freelance musicians benefitted
FUNDRAISING - 2022 AND 2023 GRANTS
Having successfully reached our £100,000 target, we launched Grant Round 4 on 12th July. Grant applications have been flowing in as we approach the 15th August submission period closing date.
We are extremely grateful to our donors for the £570,000 in donations and commitments we have secured so far for our grants. We are now focused on raising the remaining £90,000 needed to fully fund Grant Rounds 5 and 6, scheduled for January and July 2023. As we approach the final stretch of our initial three-year grant-making programme (2021-2023), we are thrilled with the impact we have been able to make. In 2023, thanks to generous donations from our trustees to cover costs, we will continue to allocate 100% of donations to our grants.
If you are able to pledge support for our 2023 grant rounds, please contact Tina Vadaneaux on tina@continuofoundation.co.uk to discuss how you can make a difference.
CONTINUO CONNECT - A DIGITAL HUB FOR PERIOD MUSIC
We are very excited about our ground-breaking initiative to create a digital hub for the UK period performance sector. Continuo Connect will bring together ensembles, musicians and audiences, leveraging technology to multiply visibility and reach, and grow the impact of our work. By bringing everyone together in one place, the hub will create a network effect - the phenomenon which sees a product grow in value to its users as more and more people use it. The musicians we have surveyed so far have all agreed that this is exactly what has been needed to secure a flourishing future for period music! The fragmented nature of the sector (many excellent yet small ensembles), the lack of information and the challenge of promoting events, especially in venues without a box office, have been persistent obstacles to audience growth and financial sustainability. There is no current directory of UK ensembles, no comprehensive listing of upcoming events for fans and, while Londoners are spoiled for choice, people in many regions have no access at all to live period music concerts. We believe that addressing these gaps will transform audience development, enable live music to tour to more communities across the UK and create a financially sustainable future for musicians. Continuo Connect is being funded separately from our grant-making, and we are thrilled to have already secured multi-year support from several key donors. Our objective is to obtain sufficient commitments to cover the estimated costs of running the project over the first three years, the time expected for the digital hub to become self-funding. To reach this goal, we are seeking to expand our group of key donors able to commit £10,000 to £30,000 per annum for three years. If you would like to learn more about Continuo Connect, please contact Tina Vadaneaux on tina@continuofoundation.co.uk
CONTINUO NOMINATED FOR 2022 REMA AWARDS
The REMA Awards are a biennial project by the European Early Music Network (REMA), rewarding actors that have made a significant contribution to the development of the field of early music. Continuo Foundation is delighted to have been selected as a nominee in the category of Professional Cooperation - Transition Project of the Year. The shortlisted candidates for the REMA AWARDS in all categories will be announced by 30th September.
CONTINUO FEATURED IN CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE
We were delighted with the brilliant article about Continuo which appeared in the Summer print issue of Classical Music magazine. As part of an ongoing series profiling various sources of funding for classical music projects, ‘Focus on Continuo Foundation’ highlights the ‘vital funding to period-instrument ensembles’ we have been providing since Continuo awarded its first grants in March 2021. The article, which was written by Glyn Môn Hughes, describes our grant-making process and selection criteria, as well as bringing attention to our application category for recently-formed ensembles to help young ensembles establish themselves.
JULY PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Istante Collective – ‘Little Things in Odd Shapes on Tour’
Building on their 'Little Things in Odd Shapes’ series, Istante Collective toured five different programmes to non-concert hall spaces, including risograph printing studios in Cardiff and Birmingham, which are normally unable to offer high standard live performances to their communities. For this tour, Istante incorporated a visual element using riso-printed publications and they held music-printing workshops to engage with new audiences by allowing them to create a booklet telling the story of the musicians, composers and characters in their research. Please click on the image for more information.
Irlandiani Players – ‘The Smock Alley Scene'
Irlandiani Players, one of our recently-formed ensembles, made a recording focused on the vibrant musical life of 18th century Dublin. The programme includes a set of six galant style cello duos by the Neapolitan composer Tomasso Giordani, who moved to Dublin in 1763 to become musical director at the Smock Alley Theatre. There is also a solo harpsichord work by Thomas Roseingrave, an Irish composer who spent several years living in Venice. Please click on the video below to hear a sample from one of the recording sessions.
Manchester Baroque – 'Musick in Manchester (1744/45)'
Manchester Baroque, another of our recently-formed ensembles, gave a performance at St. Ann’s Church, Manchester to an enthusiastic audience of over 200 people. The programme was drawn from the first ever public concert series known to have been given in Manchester (1744/45), prefiguring the remarkable musical tradition that accompanied the city’s development into one of Europe’s leading industrial cities. The ensemble has been growing a loyal following of period music fans, and has reached out to the local Ukrainian community with an offer of free tickets.
Brook Street Band – ’The Dragon of Wantley’
The Brook Street Band joined forces with conductor John Andrews and a fantastic cast of soloists including our Patron, Mary Bevan, to record John Frederick Lampe’s burlesque comic opera 'The Dragon of Wantley,’ based on the story of a dragon terrorising a Yorkshire village. Lampe, a German immigrant, used critical observations of English society to create a satirical commentary on mid-18th century English life. The recording was released to critical acclaim and continues to garner praise. Please click on the video below to hear an excerpt from the CD.