Musically Gifted - An Update

This time last year, we were busy setting up our newest fundraising campaign: Musically Gifted. In case you’ve missed it (and we hope you haven’t!) the aim of the game is to enable people from all walks of life to be a part of something special and timeless - the opportunity to help us commission a new piece of music and be credited in the score forever.

With composers ranging from Sally Beamish, James MacMillan and Nico Muhly (plus many more), we’re delighted to offer such a wide range of musical worlds and we know that there is something to please every ear.

We’re also extremely pleased to be able to include lesser known composers in the roster, which gives them a real chance of gaining exposure and creating an emotional link with listeners right from the very start of their careers.

The varying benefits received by donors depending on the size of their gift is also something we are thrilled with. All donors are credited in the score forever, although you can opt out if you wish to remain anonymous (and many do). There is then a wide range of gifts going from a signed front page of the score to the possibility of having Afternoon Tea with the composer and musicians (which we hear through the grapevine is quite a lot of fun!).

Our first commission received the support of 24 donors, our second had 35. We’re liking this trend and hoping that each commission will get increasingly popular.

Let’s not forget that Arts Council England will match-fund pound for pound each gift that we receive until 31 March 2014, which is an incredible fundraising opportunity for us. Of course, we believe it is vital for our orchestra to perform new music, and all money we raise through this campaign will permit us to commission yet more emerging and well-known composers.

I am the person who sends you the thank you card, wraps your scores in purple ribbon and makes sure that the adventure is worth it, and I must say it’s been a real pleasure this far. I love having a close connection with the composer as well as with the donors, and I really hope that we’ll be able to develop this campaign into a staple of what Britten Sinfonia offers to their followers.

Right, I think it’s time for you to discover it yourself. Get stuck in at www.musicallygifted.org.uk and get inspired.


Gabrielle Deschamps
Development Assistant

The Musically Gifted Campaign

Back in 2011-12 Britten Sinfonia ran a slightly more unusual campaign: A Tenner for a Tenor. The campaign was the first time Britten Sinfonia had tested the ‘crowdfunding’ concept – basically, getting lots of people together giving small amounts, in order to make a project happen. With the Tenner for a Tenor campaign, we were commissioning the acclaimed composer Jonathan Dove for our ‘At Lunch’ concert series, and we needed additional funds to make it happen. By the time of the world premiere, over 300 people had come together, giving £10 or more each. Everyone was a winner: Britten Sinfonia achieved its target for the campaign, and those giving £10 had their name in the front of the full score, which will remain there forever.

We were thrilled with the response, but at the time the Tenner for a Tenor campaign was very much a ‘one off’ thing, and was based solely on the fact that Jonathan Dove’s work featured the world-renowned tenor Mark Padmore, and to participate you just had to give £10. You quite literally got a tenor, for a tenner. It got us thinking though: how can we replicate this success in future? As importantly, how can we enable more people to have a real stake in the new music that they hear Britten Sinfonia perform on stage?

Well, we’re excited to announce that the successor campaign has launched: Musically Gifted. When looking at the charity marketplace, we saw there were various shining examples of excellence out there, especially away from the arts sector, including Oxfam’s famous ‘Unwrapped’ campaign. The beauty of Oxfam’s campaign is that you can buy a unique gift, and that depending on how much you have to spend, you can buy anything from a goat, to safe water for 50 people, to teacher training plus much more. All of the gifts bought enable Oxfam to deliver real change in the communities in which they operate.

With Musically Gifted we’ve taken a similar approach. Instead of goats we have composers, and we’ll have up to eight composers for you to choose from at any one time. You can buy a gift at one of seven different levels, and the more you spend, the more your rewards increase. The basic gift remains at just £10, and for that we’ll give you a hearty shout-out on Twitter and Facebook, plus you’ll get your name in the full score of your chosen work and email updates as the work evolves from commission to premiere. If you have a bit more to spend, then you can have anything from complimentary tickets to the world première of your chosen work, to an invitation for you and a guest to attend our rehearsals. You can even have afternoon tea with your chosen composer and our players.

Visit the website, www.musicallygifted.org.uk, and browse the selection of composers available. Buy a gift for yourself, or for the special someone in your life. Whoever you choose and at whatever level, you’ll be helping Britten Sinfonia create new music.

Finally, there’s one more important bit of information to tell you. As we were planning the campaign, Arts Council England put out a call for proposals, that would enable more people to give to the arts. We’re really pleased to say that the Musically Gifted campaign was one of the chosen proposals, and as a result for the next two years all gifts bought through Musically Gifted will be match-funded by the Arts Council, up to a maximum of £50,000 each year. We can also claim gift aid on your gift too. Your £10 gift could therefore become £22.50; or a £500 gift could become worth £1,125 – at absolutely no cost to you. So, if you’re in the market for a unique musical gift then please do visit the website and help us create new music.