Dear Annette and Friends of UoR,
I am writing to make an application to the annual Friends of the University grant on behalf of UoR Music.
We are requesting support to fund the purchase of a set of orchestral music stands and accompanying storage trolleys.
When I commenced my role as Artistic Director for UoR Music in June 2020, I was struck by the noticeable absence of an orchestra at the University and therefore students who played orchestral instruments didn’t have an avenue to engage with the University music programme. Right then and there I made it my mission to address the situation post-pandemic.
Fast forward to today and we are in the middle of our third successful year of building an orchestra at the University. In the first year, we engaged with approximately 25 members in the orchestra, with the second year seeing an increase to approximately 40 members. In our third and current year, we are very proud to say that we have now achieved a full orchestra, with a total membership of 60 students and are anticipating further growth over the next few years.
It is for our exciting new orchestra that I would like to provide a new set of music stands for the following three reasons:
- Our current equipment is extremely old and rusted, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to adjust the height as required by the players.
- The inefficient design of the stands means that they take up an unusually large amount of space. At 60 players, our rehearsal room is bursting at the seams and would struggle to accommodate a larger ensemble. A set of more streamlined stands would enable us to accommodate a larger number of players in the ensemble and continue to grow our student engagement through orchestral music.
- Our current stands do not have a dedicated storage trolley, making them difficult to transport across our different rehearsal and performance venues. The new set of stands and storage trolleys would reduce set-up time and facilitate more rehearsal playing time.
I have attached here for reference some photos of our current equipment so that you can get a better sense of the need. Below is a link of the equipment that I would like to purchase:
Each unit consists of a trolley and 12 music stands, costing £670.
We would ideally like to have a full set of 48 music stands, at a total cost of £2680.
I understand that this sum might be more than what the Friends of the University grant normally allows. If this is the case and therefore disqualifies our application, I would ask that the Friends might consider a grant that contributes a portion of the overall cost rather than the full amount. This would help us ever so much to provide amazing music experiences on a very limited budget whilst allowing the Friends legacy to support the growth of the UoR Music programme for many decades to come.
I would be very pleased to answer any questions that you may have or provide further information.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration of this request.
All best wishes
Victoria
Victoria Ely
MMus (Dist) | BMus | BCom
Artistic Director
University of Reading Music
M: +447896 635323
Please note that my hours are part-time and spread across the week. I will endeavour to respond as quickly as possible.
University of Reading Music is located on the University of Reading London Road Campus
4 Redlands Road, READING, RG1 5EX