Endowment Fund launched for Adam Chamber Music Festival

Media Release - Endowment Fund launched for Adam Chamber Music Festival

Noted Christchurch arts philanthropist Adrienne, Lady Stewart last night launched an endowment fund for the Adam Chamber Music Festival, which is currently drawing capacity audiences to a series of 30 events in Nelson and Marlborough.

Adam Festival trust chair Colleen Marshall said Lady Stewart announced the fund with a donation of $5000 at a function at the Nelson School of Music after the packed Grand Opening Concert at the Cathedral.

“It was a wonderful gesture of support from Lady Stewart and we were thrilled at the generous response it generated from the other guests at the function last night,” Mrs Marshall said. “The endowment fund will be separate from our operating budget and will go a long way towards ensuring the ongoing viability of this wonderful festival that has become such a key part of the arts calendar in Nelson.”

Mrs Marshall says other groups such as the NZSO and Chamber Music New Zealand already have endowment funds.

“It will be run by a ‘subset’ of the current board, but will draw on outside investment advisors,” she said. “I see the fund being used perhaps to hold a special event or to pay for a musician we particularly want to bring here.”

Lady Stewart has been acknowledged with an Arts Foundation Award for Patronage. She is currently Governing Patron of the Art & Industry Biennial Trust, Chair of the Christchurch Symphony Foundation and a long-term judge of the NBR Awards for Sponsorship of the Arts.

She described the Adam Festival as ‘stunning’ and said it was ready to be taken to the ‘next level’.

“This festival needs a family around it with the enthusiasm and commitment to ensure its sustainability,” Lady Stewart said. “It is a world class festival - Nelson must not lose it.”

It’s hoped by the end of the nine day festival the endowment fund will have swelled to $100,000.

The biennial Adam Chamber Music Festival has made Nelson a summer Mecca for chamber music lovers, with concerts in heritage churches, vineyards, the acoustically excellent School of Music auditorium and the wonderfully atmospheric Cathedral. The Top of the South’s other attractions of beaches, wineries, crafts and shopping add to the appeal, especially for those escaping the northern winter.

The festival is supported by local and national sponsors, including the Nelson City Council. The 2009 festival generated a net spend of $1.5 million, according to a report commissioned by the Nelson Regional Economic Development Agency from Wellington-based McDermott Miller.

Full details of the programme and bookings are now available at www.music.org.nz
and at Everyman Records in Nelson

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