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21 March 2024
Continuo Foundation celebrates Early Music Day with £100,000
in new grants awarded to 27 ensembles across the UK.
Today, Continuo Foundation, the charity with a mission to help early music flourish, celebrates Early Music Day by announcing £100,000 of new grants to 27 period-instrument ensembles across the UK. With the total funding support for musicians at £750,000 since Continuo was founded in 2020, this new round of grants will give hundreds of musicians the opportunity to proceed with concert tours and other artistic projects taking place in 65 different locations from April through October 2024.
The successful ensembles, who will each receive funding of £2,000 to £6,000, were selected from more than 50 applicants by the charity’s expert Advisory Panel and trustees based on the criteria of artistic quality, new audience engagement, and building a more sustainable future for the ensemble. One third are first-time Continuo Foundation grant recipients and six are recently formed groups.
In total, Continuo Foundation has supported the projects of 94 period-instrument ensembles, of which 22 are emerging groups formed since 2020. These projects have led to hundreds of live performances across the country and have benefited 1,000 freelance musicians and brought uplifting music to over 100,000 audience members in 180 communities across the UK and online.
New grantees will also have access to Continuo Connect, a centralised resource which offers all professional UK-based period-instrument ensembles and solo artists a platform to publicise their performances and connect with wider audiences across the country. The website also provides audiences with aggregated concert listings and invites discovery of early music through articles and interviews with musicians, listening recommendations, video content, and guides to unique venues.
Tina Vadaneaux, Founder and CEO of Continuo Foundation said:
“The financial support offered by these grants and the publicity support of Continuo Connect are fundamental to growing the early music sector and raising its profile. By helping musicians to build financially sustainable careers, we are also enabling them to bring outstanding live music to people in their local communities and beyond. As Europe comes together to mark Early Music Day today, we are also celebrating our 27 new grantees who are all pioneering new and imaginative ways of presenting early music. As always, it has been incredibly hard to choose, but we are excited to have such a wide variety of ensembles and so many new locations benefiting from these creative projects.”
One of the successful ensembles, La Nuova Musica, commented on their upcoming ‘Jephthah’s Daughter’ project with composer Luke Styles:
“We are delighted to have the support of Continuo Foundation to continue our commitment to championing the work of contemporary composers, alongside baroque masters, and to exploring parallels between the two sound worlds. The Foundation's valuable work to support and strengthen the sector makes us extremely proud to be part of the Continuo family and we look forward to working in partnership to bring high quality music-making to audiences across the UK.”
Another grantee, La Serenissima, added:
“This grant will enable us to take our latest musical discoveries outside London and reconnect with audiences in Gloucestershire (where we are based), and in our founder’s home city, Liverpool. Taking programmes outside London in the current economic environment is challenging, so we are very grateful to be able to tour this programme.”
Catherine Mackintosh, a member of Continuo Foundation's expert Advisory Panel and former leader of the Academy of Ancient Music and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, concluded:
"It is an honour to be asked to evaluate all this wealth of talent. The Foundation is indeed a marvel and the world of British music is greatly the richer for it in so many ways.”
Full details of the ensembles and projects supported in Grant Round Seven are available on the Our Grantees page.
For more on Continuo Connect visit www.continuoconnect.com.
Congratulations to all our new grantees, and thank you to all
the generous donors who made these grant awards possible!