Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club is repurposing musical instruments and donating them to children that lack access to instruments, marking the return of their Musical Instrument Amnesty initiative in 2022.
Individuals with unused or unwanted instruments are invited to donate them on 22 January, at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, London, between 10am and 3pm.
The instrument donors are given a unique tracking number, and can see where their instrument ends up. Previous instruments have been sent to Uganda, Nepal, Zanzibar, Palestine and Colombia, as well as across the UK.
Since 2015, the initiative has collected and redistributed over 700 musical instruments to children whose access to music education has been compromised – this could be due to their social or geographical situation.
The Musical Instrument Amnesty will work with several charitable organisations including Sistema England. Nina Kaye, of Sistema, said: ‘Bravo Ronnie Scott's for organising another instrument amnesty.’
‘There are children all over the country wanting to learn to play an instrument without the means to buy one – and there are thousands of instruments gathering dust in cupboards and on shelves needing to be played. It is initiatives such as this that will bring music to so many more young people and put the instruments to their proper use.’
Ada Ologbosere – head of the Ronnie Scott’s Charitable Foundation – said: ‘What a wonderful opportunity for us to come together in the name of charity. This is such a great incentive – we have supported many young musicians over the years, and we are so excited to be in a position to bring the Musical Instrument Amnesty back for 2022. I look forward to meeting both members and other guests on 22 January.’
Instruments in good condition are preferred, but the jazz club also welcomes broken and forgotten instruments, and is willing to fix them prior to repurposing them. The list of instruments you can hand in are as follows:
- Keyboards/ electric pianos
- Brass and woodwind instruments
- Basses: upright and electric
- Guitars: acoustic and electric
- String instruments
- Drum kits and percussions
- Traditional instruments: Tabla, Oud and Djembe
- Any equipment: mics stands and leads, amps, effects pedals, PA systems etc.
