Continuo Foundation helps period-instrument ensembles, musicians and the public, who benefit from their performances through the power of music to enrich lives and enhance well being. The impact of our grants so far has been to give hope to musicians at a very difficult and critical moment when many wondered whether being a freelance musician would remain a viable career. Our grants inspired these skilled professionals to use their creativity to plan projects which could be made possible by our funding. Preservation of the UK's tradition of excellence in period performance was our initial goal. Moving into the next phase of our mission, we are helping ensembles and musicians to rebuild their careers and to become more financially sustainable. Our long term mission is to bring attention to this sector and to help it to grow and flourish, bringing excellent performances to communities across the UK, building the audiences of the future and creating opportunities for young artists entering the field. Alongside our grant making, Continuo Foundation has invested in a digital platform - Continuo Connect - to bring all stakeholders in the sector together in one place, and to accelerate the growth which underpins our mission. We believe this innovative tech-for-good project could become a model for other sectors in the arts. The Continuo Connect site was launched in 2023.
Since 2021, Continuo Foundation has raised and made available £750,000 in grants to period-instrument ensembles in order to support projects creating work for the highly-skilled freelance musicians who play period instruments as well as singers who focus on early music repertoire. Over the next three years, we plan to continue with two rounds of grants per year, with £100,000 minimum per round, and are now in the process of evaluating the seventh round of £100,000 in grants. In parallel with our grant making activity, we are seeking to scale up our impact by investing in technology to bring solutions to the problems faced by ensembles and musicians, particularly in connecting with their audiences and marketing and publicising their concerts to the public. At the same time, by giving these groups and their performances visibility and critical mass, we will help people across the country to benefit from the music created, both live and online, by making it easily accessible. The Continuo Connect platform is designed to accelerate the growth in artistic activity which is being realised through our grant making. All of our activities are aimed at creating a virtuous circle whereby increased visibility and access to funding for ensembles and musicians will lead to growing audiences and the spread of excellent classical music to every region of the UK, particularly those areas which lack provision at present.
