Yuri Rozum Foundation

Russia has always been known for its gifted musicians and the country has produced some of the greatest composers and performers in history including world famous Tchaikovsky and Rakhmaninov. Nowadays, in order to preserve and continue this great musical tradition many institutes and private individuals support talented children who hope to one day follow in the footsteps forefathers and become musicians. The Yuri Rozum International Charity Foundation was created in 2005 to invest in the musical future of Russia. Since it has been awarding scholarships to children from the ages of 7 to 17 who wish to study music but whose parents cannot afford school fees.The idea behind the programme is that if a child is talented they should be given every opportunity to be able to develop their skill. To select the children who will be given an award, competitions are held every year in all of Russia's regions. Children are invited to come and perform before a jury of judges who decide whether they are worthy of an award or not. Those who are selected are given financial support to help them with their musical studies for one year. They can spend this money to buy instruments, pay school fees or private lessons and for travel and living expenses if they have to live away from home. At the end of the year judges review the participants' progress and if they believe that the child has worked well the scholarship can be renewed for another year. Money to support the foundation is raised in different ways but the main fund-raising events are concerts. Every year on the UNESCO International Day for the Protection of Childhood the foundation holds a music festival in Moscow during which the winners of the previous years scholarship perform. It is a fantastic way to show what great work the foundation does and raise money to help even more young musicians.