About Us
When an enthusiastic amateur cellist replaced his long-held student cello with a better one, he discovered the shockingly high cost of string instruments. How, he asked, do young musicians balance funding their musical education with the soaring cost of instruments? What he found was that many talented young musicians were playing on instruments which severely limited their growth. The cost of instruments was often the problem.
The not-for-profit Virtu Foundation was formed in 1998 to act as a conduit between patrons, donors and deserving musicians. The Foundation accepts financial contributions, donations of and loans of stringed instruments and places the instruments with musicians whose careers or education in music would benefit from gaining access to an instrument which they cannot afford.
What We Do
In the Scholarship Program the Foundation has placed scores of fine stringed instruments with students whose ages ranged from twelve to thirty. Students have come from locations as diverse as China and Chicago, Romania and Reno, Bulgaria and Buffalo. Foundation Scholars have attended Julliard, Cleveland Institute of Music, The Peabody Institute, Boston Conservatory, Oberlin, The Universities of Indiana, Northwestern, Harvard, Yale, Michigan, Minnesota and Texas, Eastman School of Music, Curtis and many others. These Scholars have studied with the finest of current teachers both in this country and abroad and have won important awards in many competitions. Instruments placed have ranged from contemporary to some more than a century old.
The Foundation believes that music can be a force strong enough to shape the life of a child. Through the Mentor Program, the Foundation partners with string music teaching programs directed towards disadvantaged young people. The Foundation has supported string teaching programs in Independence, Missouri, Missoula, Montana, Morgantown, West Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland. Hundreds of children have been introduced to string music playing with the Foundation’s assistance.