Announcement,
Give Back Friday
Rather than joining in with the Black Friday shopping bonanza this year, we've decided to reframe it here at Presto as 'Give Back Friday' (or more specifically 'Give Back Friday to Monday') where for those four days (UK time) we will be donating 5% of all the revenue we receive to two charities whose aims are closely aligned with our own.
The first of these is the Chineke! Foundation - founded by double bass-player Chi-chi Nwanoku in 2015, the organisation works to inspire and encourage young musicians of Black, Asian and ethnically diverse backgrounds into our industry, where they are currently significantly under-represented. The Foundation's alumni include the Kanneh-Mason siblings, whose new recording of Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals featured in our newsletter last week.
The contribution we will be able to give will go directly towards supprting the Chineke! Junior Orchestra in 2021, covering concerts and a summer Residency, as well as their Learning programme in schools.
The second is the Benedetti Foundation, the brain-child of violinist Nicola Benedetti, which fights year-round for the place of quality arts and culture in our schools and our homes by creating life-changing opportunities for young people and helping teachers to share best practice.
Throughout 2020 they have been one of the real pioneers in delivering experiences online and their Virtual Sessions in May 2020 reached over 7000 registered participants, from 66 countries including every local authority in Scotland, county of England and local council of Northern Ireland, whilst 18 Welsh counties were represented. It has also spread beyond the UK with over 41 US states represented.
Read more about the Benedetti's project's mission to 'Unite, inspire and educate' here.
Chris O'Reilly - Chief Executive
