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Nordoff Robbins cancels 2020 Silver Clef Awards

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 13 May 2020

This year’s Nordoff Robbins Silver Clef Awards have been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The event had been due to take place on 3 Jul.

Launched in 1976, the annual fundraising event for the music therapy charity has taken place every year since then, becoming the key event in the organisation’s calendar.

Explaining the difficulty in making the decision to pull the ceremony, Nordoff Robbins CEO Sandra Schembri points out that the awards event is the charity’s biggest annual fundraiser and – with the organisation receiving no government funding for its work – such fundraising is vital.

Meanwhile, she adds, “our music therapy [work] has never been needed more and we want to be able to continue supporting those most vulnerable members of our communities now as well as for years to come”.

With this and most of its other fundraising activity this year cancelled, the charity expects to see its income fall by 75% in 2020 – a shortfall of £6 million.

Chair of the O2 Silver Clef Awards Committee, CAA’s Emma Banks, adds: “The decision not to go ahead with the awards this year, although the right one, has still been tough for all involved. The music industry has long supported Nordoff Robbins because what better charity to get behind than one which uses music to bring so much joy, comfort and hope to people experiencing so many different challenges in life?”

“We’re determined to continue to support its fantastic work”, she added, “and we’ll work hard to continue to support the charity through these tough times”.

Kicking off that support, record industry collecting society PPL has donated what would have been its sponsorship fee for this year’s event to the charity instead of seeking a refund.

The next edition of the awards ceremony is now scheduled for 2 Jul 2021 at Grosvenor House in London.