Aims

The Masterclass Media Foundation is a non profit organisation and UK registered charity (No 1113002) which films and records some of the world’s great musicians teaching and giving masterclasses. The Foundation has two aims: first to create an archive of such masterclasses for the benefit of future generations of students and scholars and secondly to make them available on DVDs and eventually through the internet, to music schools and students throughout the world. It works closely with the most prestigious music schools and has filmed musicians of the calibre of Maxim Vengerov

Maxim Vengerov

Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov is a violinist, violist, and conductor who was born in the Soviet Union.-Youth:Born on 20 August 1974 in Novosibirsk, Russia, to a family with musical tradition....

, András Schiff

András Schiff

András Schiff is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist, who has won a number of awards including the Grammy and made numerous recordings.- Biography :...

, Bernard Haitink

Bernard Haitink

Bernard Johan Herman Haitink, CH, KBE is a Dutch conductor and violinist.- Early life :Haitink was born in Amsterdam, the son of Willem Haitink and Anna Haitink. He studied music at the conservatoire in Amsterdam...

, Stephen Kovacevich

Stephen Kovacevich

Stephen Kovacevich , who has also been known as Stephen Bishop and Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich is an American classical pianist and conductor.-Biography:...

, Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur is a German conductor, particularly noted for his interpretation of German Romantic music.- Biography :Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. Masur has been married three times...

, Stephen Hough

Stephen Hough

Stephen Andrew Gill Hough is a British-born classical pianist, composer and writer. He became an Australian citizen in 2005 and thus has dual nationality .-Biography:...

, Evelyn Glennie

Evelyn Glennie

Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, DBE is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist. She was the first full-time solo percussionist in 20th-century western society.-Early life:Glennie was born and raised in Aberdeenshire...

, Yuri Bashmet

Yuri Bashmet

Yuri Abramovich Bashmet is a Russian conductor and violist.Direct patrilineal descendant of Besht.-Biography:Yuri Bashmet was born on 24 January 1953 in Rostov-on-Don in the family of Abram Borisovich Bashmet and Maya Zinovyeva Bashmet . "Father's mother, Tsilya Efimovna, studied singing at the...

, Håkan Hardenberger

Håkan Hardenberger

Håkan Hardenberger is a Swedish trumpeter. Taking up the trumpet at the age of eight under the guidance of hometown teacher Bo Nilsson, Hardenberger pursued further studies at the Paris Conservatoire, with Pierre Thibaud, and in Los Angeles with Thomas Stevens...

 and Thomas Quasthoff

Thomas Quasthoff

Thomas Quasthoff is a German bass-baritone. Although his reputation was initially based on his performance of Romantic lieder, Quasthoff has proven to have a remarkable range from the Baroque cantatas of Bach to solo jazz improvisations.-Biography:Quasthoff was born in Hildesheim, Germany, with...

.

Organisation and Funding

The foundation is based in Bristol, UK. It is funded partly by income from sales of its DVDs and partly through charitable donations and grants. The Chief Executive is Mischa Scorer

Mischa Scorer

Mischa Scorer is an award-winning British documentary film-maker.-Biography:Mischa Scorer worked as producer for BBC Television from 1965 to 1979, first in the Religious Broadcasting Department where he made such documentaries as “Padre Pio” for which he won the first prize in the WACC Monte Carlo...

.

Achievements

• The MMF has released over 50 hours of masterclasses on 35 DVDs with an impressive roster of great musicians, including violin with Maxim Vengerov, piano with András Schiff, Stephen Kovacevich, Emanuel Ax, Joanna MacGregor and Stephen Hough, cello with Steven Isserlis and Frans Helmerson, conducting with Bernard Haitink, Simon Carrington and Kurt Masur, singing with Thomas Quasthoff and Joan Rodgers, percussion with Evelyn Glennie, trumpet with Håkan Hardenberger, viola with Yuri Bashmet, chamber music with Gábor Takács-Nagy and many others.

• The MMF has won outstanding critical acclaim in the specialist music press, notably in The Gramophone, The BBC Music Magazine, The Strad and International Piano Magazine (which awarded the MMF its “Educational DVD of the Year 2009”).

• Over 100 conservatoires worldwide have MMF masterclasses in their libraries – most have complete sets. Its customer base now also includes individual students in 60 countries.

• Extracts from MMF masterclasses have received almost a million hits on YouTube.

• In 2010 the MMF was recognised by Arts Council England with a substantial lottery award.

• The MMF has created audio files of all masterclasses for the benefit of blind and partially sighted people. These are being donated to the National Library Service of the RNIB in the UK. The US Library of Congress service for the blind has also ordered a complete set.

• 14 Academy Schools in the UK specialising in music have been given full sets free of charge.

• By the end of 2010 masterclasses will be available digitally for streaming and downloading.

• A number of important academic institutions including The British Library have asked to house the entire archive in perpetuity.