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Katherine McGillivray’s Get a Life Fund

22 November 2007

Katherine McGillivray’s Get a Life Fund

- a new charity for musicians

The Catherine Wheel, Cadogan Hall, London, Thursday 22nd November 2007, 7.30pm

mcgillivray catherine wheel

www.getalifefund.org.uk

For more information on the Get a Life Fund

  • The Fund

Katherine McGillivray’s Get a Life Fund is a new charity dedicated to funding sabbaticals for professional musicians.

All artistic professionals are to some extent at risk of burn-out: it is essential for their health, well-being and the quality of their work that they are allowed time out for reflection and growth. For freelance musicians in particular this is difficult, because to take time off leads to loss of income, and the available funding for career development is usually offered only to applicants under the age of 30.

Katherine McGillivray’s Get a Life Fund aims to encourage and assist the taking of sabbaticals by awarding two grants of £10,000 to individuals each year. The type of project considered need not necessarily be music-centred, and will typically be between 4 months and year in duration. Awards will be made to professional musicians over the age of 30 who are UK or Irish nationals, or resident in those countries. The first grants will be awarded in Spring 2008.

  • Katherine McGillivray

The Fund was set up following the sudden death at the age of 36 last year of the Scottish viola player Katherine McGillivray. Katherine was a leading specialist in baroque music, a vital and cherished member of many period instrument groups and also a professor of baroque viola and viola d’amore at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music. She felt a strong affinity to folk music, which led her in 2005 to take the brave step of travelling to the tiny village of Tobo, Sweden, to spend a year learning Swedish folk music and dancing. She learnt to play Sweden’s national instrument, the nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle), and became fluent in the language and the music. At the same time, she was revolutionising the way she thought about teaching, with her research into how the techniques of teaching folk music might positively influence the classical music teaching system. Her year was an extremely stimulating and inspiring one, and she returned to the UK full of new energy and music and ideas. Katherine found it extremely hard to raise the money needed for the sabbatical, and it was only made possible by an unexpected last-minute private donation of £10,000.

mcgillivray catherine wheel
  • The Launch Concert

The Catherine Wheel, Cadogan Hall, London, Thursday 22nd November 2007, 7.30pm

The Fund will be launched at a concert given by The Catherine Wheel, directed by renowned baroque violinist Catherine Mackintosh. The 16-piece group is utterly unique in that every member is called Catherine. The ensemble has delighted Wigmore Hall audiences in the past and is presenting an engaging programme including Bach Cantata BWV 202 (with Katharine Fuge, soprano), CPE Bach Flute Concerto (Katy Bircher, flute) and Mozart Clarinet Quintet (Katherine Spencer, clarinet). See attached flier.

Download a full concert leaflet here

  • Contact

For more details about the Get a Life Fund or the Catherine Wheel, contact Alison McGillivray or Andrew Logan using the e-mailer below.

or telephone +44 (0) 141 956 1255 or 020 8521 1467

Katherine McGillivray’s Get a Life Fund, registered charity no.1117589