The all-volunteer, fan-run Mockingbird Foundation is once again celebrating Phish tour by making unsolicited Tour Grants supporting a music program near each of the venues at which the band will perform. This special series of Tour Grants includes separate, unsolicited $1000 grants to four different programs in and around New York City, where Phish is about to begin its annual four-show New Year's Eve run.

In honor of Phish's upcoming show at Madison Square Garden on December 28th, The Mockingbird Foundation is sending a check for $1000 to Education Through Music, on 42nd Street in New York City. ETM partners with under-resourced schools to provide music as a core subject for all children, and utilizes music education as a catalyst to improve academic achievement, motivation for school, and self-confidence. They make music education a reality for thousands of children who would otherwise have little or no exposure to the arts by forming long-term partnerships with elementary, middle, and PreK–8 schools that are located in historically low-income communities and lack sufficient resources for school-wide music education. ETM hires, trains, and provides ongoing support for music teachers, and provides weekly general music classes, choirs, band and orchestra ensembles, music tech, and other enrichment. They started in one school, and are now in 70, serving some 36,000 students!

This is Mockingbird's 422nd grant overall. The Foundation has now disbursed $169,500 in Tour Grants, 11% of its more than $1.4M in grants covering all 50 states. Watch for news posts here at Phish.net, or the evolving press release at mbird.org, for news on other "miracle" tour grants this run. And please consider making a contribution, to help us give back to the communities we've touched.

(By the way, we've often invited venues to match Tour Grants, but have yet to be successful at that. So, if you have a contact at MSG corporate, please talk up Mockingbird and/or these grantees, and/or send target contact info to [email protected].)