This year Newport Festivals Foundation (NFF) is partnering with festival artists to donate on their behalf to a music education cause of the artist’s choosing. It was just announced that this year Trey Anastasio will be performing at the Newport Folk Festival, and he has decided to have his donation made to the Mockingbird Foundation to support music education.
In turn, the Mockingbird Foundation will match this donation and use the funds to support the local Rhode Island music program at Mt. Pleasant High School in Providence.
“The benefits of music education in the lives of young people are countless, and yet music programs in our schools continue to be seriously underfunded,” said Anastasio, co-founder of the band Phish. “Thankfully, there are organizations like The Mockingbird Foundation that are on the frontlines of this very worthy cause. The fact that this non-profit organization was founded and funded by the Phish fan community is incredibly inspiring and humbling.”
Mt. Pleasant is an ethnically diverse learning community where most students are the first of their families to receive formal music education, and NFF’s donation and Mockingbird’s match of that donation will be used to purchase musical instruments for their students to play.
“We are grateful to the NFF for co-funding this award, and to Trey Anastasio for entrusting The Mockingbird Foundation to direct the grant,” said Mockingbird Foundation President Adam Scheinberg. “We’re proud to partner with an artist who gives back so generously and supports equity in music education.”
Newport Festivals Foundation’s mission is to foster the legacy and expand the impact of our Festivals through educational initiatives that celebrate innovation while preserving the deep traditions inherent in Jazz and Folk music.
“Mockingbird and Newport Festivals are made up of two communities with so much in common: Most notably, we’re huge fans of Trey’s music and we understand the importance of supporting music education,” said Jay Sweet, Executive Producer at Newport Festivals. “We’re so excited to be partnering with them to provide Mt. Pleasant High School in Providence, RI, with music instruments. Thank you to Mockingbird for matching this donation and to Trey for his continuous support of the arts”.
The Mockingbird Foundation has been operated entirely by volunteer fans, with no salaries or paid staff, since its inception. Mockingbird is now a leading provider of historical information about the band Phish and its music, having cultivated intellectual property through phish.net since 1994. Also a leading grantmaker in music education for children, the Foundation has now made 401 grants, in all 50 states, totaling $1,447,523.40. Proceeds are generated by celebrating the music of Phish through books, recordings, art, donations, and special events, including poster exhibitions, poker tournaments, and golf tournaments.
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