THE ACADEMY of ST OLAVE’S – Charity Fundraising
The Academy of St Olave’s often uses concerts for charity fundraising
Charity Fundraising and Audience Donations
The Academy often chooses a charity to support and audiences have also donated generously to collections held at many of our concerts.
Jessie's Fund
26 Jan 2019
This concert raised £1,600 for Jessie’s Fund, which was generously matched by an anonymous donor, resulting in an amazing £3,200 for the charity.
25 Jun 2016
This concert raised £685.15 for Jessie’s Fund.
27 Jun 2015
This concert raised a brilliant £1000 for Jessie’s Fund – 20th Anniversary.
18 Jan 2014
This concert raised an amazing £1175 for Jessie’s Fund.
15 Jan 2011
£465.55 was collected for Jessie’s Fund.
St Olave's Church & York Flood Disaster Fund
23 Jun 2018
An amazing £1269 was raised for St Olave’s Church
23 Jan 2016
£420 was collected for the St Olave’s Church Roof Repairs Fund and the York Flood Disaster Fund. There were additional donations of £1,200 for the church roof repairs via the link on our blog.
21 Jan 2012
Over £600 was collected for the St Olave’s Church Roof fund.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance
20 January 2018
This concert raised a fantastic £762 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance
St Leonard's Hospice
23 September 2017
At this concert £653 was raised for St Leonard’s Hospice.
22 June 2013
At this concert £678 was raised for St Leonard’s Hospice.
Neuroblastoma UK
24 June 2017
This concert raised an amazing £915 for the children’s cancer charity Neuroblastoma UK
York Against Cancer
21 Jan 2017
At this concert a fantastic £756.31 was raised for York based charity York Against Cancer
24 Sep 2016Save the Children
19 Sep 2015
This concert raised £325 for the Save the Children Child Refugee Crisis Appeal
Disasters Emergency Committee
24 Jan 2015
£520 was raised for the DEC Ebola Crisis Appeal
18 Sept 2010
A staggering £1,132 was raised for the DEC Pakistan Floods Appeal.
The Academy donated all proceeds from the concert and also held an audience collection.
23 Jan 2010
£654 was collected for the DEC Haiti Earthquake appeal
Martin House
14 June 2014
£457 was raised for
Martin House Good Night’s Sleep Appeal
The Albanian Musicians' Trust
When the communist régime fell in 1990 there followed a period of anarchy, and classically trained musicians were in a desperate situation. The composer Thoma Simaku and the conductor Eno Koço and their families fled to England. Academy of St Olave’s bassoonist June Emerson raised funds to support them. This led to the formation of The Albanian Musicians’ Trust in 1991.
For fifteen years the Trust supported musicians in Albania and several students who came to study in the UK at Chetham’s School and the Royal Northern College of Music, including Academy of St Olave’s soloist Anila Milaj. The Trust helped Albanian composers to promote their music in the outside world. The Trust also sent quantities of printed music to the starved libraries and supplied strings and other accessories to the Albanian music schools.
Musical life has now regenerated in Albania, albeit on a smaller scale. The Trust was therefore wound up at the end of 2006, very happy with what it helped to achieve. The Albanian Academy of Arts presented June Emerson an award in 2012 for her years of hard work and tireless efforts to help Albanian musicians.
The Academy of St Olave’s raised funds for the Albanian Musicians’ Trust in several of its concerts, thus helping to support Anila Milaj’s studies in England, which were entirely funded by the Trust.
The Ian Theakston Memorial Trust
Ian Theakston was a familiar figure to all involved in York’s many musical events before his untimely accidental death in 1994. He was well known to his audiences and well loved by the musicians with whom he played. In particular he was a great friend of The Academy, playing his bass whenever we needed strengthening and giving generously of his time and knowledge in writing wonderfully researched programme notes for us over several years – they were the only notes that ever gave due prominence to the part played by the basses!
A charitable trust was set up to enable Ian’s contribution to music to continue, with the aim of making annual awards to young musicians in the area, particularly double bass players, to help them with their instrumental studies. The aim was that the fine tradition of orchestral playing in this area would be able to prosper and Ian’s memory would live on.
The concert on Saturday 16 September 1995 was in aid of the Ian Theakston Memorial Trust.