The Mockingbird Foundation today reported that it has raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for music education, and announced five new grants totalling $22,500. The new grants will support an eight-week master’s program in local culture at Bahama Village Music Program, Key West, FL; a tutoring collaboration between the Berklee College of Music and Colonel Daniel Marr Boys & Girls Club, Dorchester, MA; master’s classes and guest recitals in a summer intensive music program at Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, a division of Boys & Girls Harbor, Inc., New York, NY; an after-school series in hip hop and spoken word by Power of Hope, Bellingham, WA; and a YMCA-based music and theory education program of Youth Service Project, Chicago, IL.
Funding for this round came through a generous donation by Phish, who announced last December that all of their net proceeds from music downloads purchased through LivePhish.com would be donated to the Mockingbird Foundation. The first quarter’s revenues from the service generated an initial contribution to the Foundation of more than $80,000. Historically, the Foundation has been among the most competitive grant application processes around, funding less than 1% of the inquiries it receives. LivePhish revenues help increase that percentage, by providing a new fundraising stream to the Foundation.
“I’d love to see my fellow fans get as many shows as they can through LivePhish.com,” says Foundation board member Dan Hantman. “It really sends a strong signal to the band about how much we care that they’ve made so much high-quality music so readily available — not to mention how cool we think it is that they’re passing along their profits to Mockingbird to help another generation learn to play music.”
LivePhish.com offers high-quality, unedited soundboard recordings of select shows, in standard MP3 and CD-quality FLAC files via a state-of-the-art delivery system. Recordings are available to Phish fans no later than forty-eight hours after each concert. The service is currently the most popular single-artist digital download service in operation.
Phish is a rock band headquartered in Burlington, VT. The band started December 2, 1983, and will perform it’s final show on August 15, 2004, having announced last week that it would disband after its summer shows.
The Mockingbird Foundation is a leading provider of historical information about the band Phish and its music. Conceived in 1996, and founded in 1997, the Foundation is operated entirely by volunteers, without any salaries or paid staff. It fundraises for music education for children by celebrating the music of Phish, through comprehensive books, innovative recordings, creative donation premiums, and special events for the Phish fan community. The Foundation will release a second edition of The Phish Companion this summer, and will announce its next round of grant recipients in October.