Continuo Foundation opens new grant round
Florence Lockheart
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
The arts charity has reached its latest £100,000 funding goal and is now offering grants ranging from £2,000 to £8,000 to UK period instrument ensembles
Early music-focused arts charity Continuo Foundation has this week opened its sixth round of project grants. A total of £100,000 raised from private individuals, trusts and foundations, will be available to UK period instrument ensembles looking to fund their creative projects.
UK ensembles both emerging and established are invited to submit proposals for creative projects scheduled to take place between October 2023 and March 2024. Continuo grants, which range from £2,000 to £8,000 per project, help facilitate the touring of adventurous programmes to communities that lack access to live classical music.
Ensemble Augelletti, one of Continuo’s first grant recipients, was recently selected as the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Baroque Ensemble. Ensemble founder Olwen Foulkes said: ‘We have come a long way in the last couple of years and so much is down to the support of the Continuo Foundation. It's one thing to have ideas and ambition for a project, but a completely different thing to have them alongside the support to make them happen and bring them to the attention of others! We're so thankful for the support and can't overestimate the impact for us.’
The new round will bring the total support provided by the charity since it was founded in 2020 to a total of £660,000. The latest round of grants will once again offer a separate category for recently-formed ensembles. The charity has so far supported 13 ensembles with this newly-created category (pictured above). The submission deadline is 10 August and decisions are expected in September, following evaluation guided by Continuo’s Advisory Panel.
The new grant round follows the launch of Continuo’s digital hub, Continuo Connect. Built to promote concerts and events both with and without Continuo funding, the platform is designed to connect music lovers with musicians, making it easy for audiences to find high quality live music anywhere in the UK.
Continuo founder and CEO Tina Vadaneaux said: ‘Early music concerts are relaxed, affordable and high quality. Smaller-scale local venues enable concertgoers to connect with the musicians and with others in their local community. The most frequently reported audience comment is ‘Please come back!’’
