Newark College extends a warm welcome to the Music Fund and invites the community to donate instruments for third world countries.
The international organisation will be present at the School of Violin Making on Kirk Gate on Friday 28th June, as part of the College’s Musical Instrument Craft Open Day.
Music Fund is a charity that collects unwanted musical instruments from European donors, repairs them, and sends them to music projects in countries in need or in conflict. It also trains and supports instrument repairers in those countries so that the instruments donated remain in good condition.
Currently the charity has active projects in five countries, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Morocco, Mozambique, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Instruments are donated at periodic collection events around Europe.
Founder Lukas Pairon says: “There are always memories attached to a musical instrument. When people donate an instrument, in their heads they travel with the instrument. That is what makes it so powerful.
“You will empathize with the child in Gaza who will learn to play her first notes on your father’s violin. It causes people to show an interest in places where they only hear bad news. This is for Music Fund an important aspect of collections of instruments such as in Newark. And it is, one may say, our return to people who donate an instrument.”
The event on Friday 28th June at Newark College will be the next opportunity for UK-based donors to give instruments, or make a financial contribution to the charity's work. All donors are informed once the instrument reaches its final destination.
The organisation was founded in 2005, and its patrons include well-known artists such as Daniel Barenboim. It has so far collected and distributed more than 6,000 instruments.
The open day on Friday 28th June, from 11am-4pm, takes place across the Violin School on Kirk Gate and the Piano School on Appleton Gate. It gives prospective students the opportunity to find out about the musical instrument craft courses available and an idea of what college life is like.
