NILE RODGERS TO BE HONOURED AT THE BRIT SCHOOL IN CROYDON WITH WING OF THE MUSIC SCHOOL TO BE NAMED AFTER HIM
In recognition of funds raised by Nile Rodgers and his manager, Merck Mercuriadis, in support of young artists at the UK’s leading free school for Performing and Creative Arts.
The BRIT School in Croydon is thrilled to welcome music legend Nile Rodgers back to visit The BRIT School on Monday, 23rd September 2019 at 9:00am to thank him for the incredible financial support he has made possible for the School as well as the guidance and opportunities he has given many students, which included inviting them to perform this summer at the critically acclaimed Meltdown Festival at London’s Southbank Centre.
As part of the event on Monday, The BRIT School will unveil the naming in Nile’s honour of one of the Music Wings to recognise more than £250,000 raised from his Viewing Party held on the night of the BRIT Awards at The Ned this past February. The proceeds from this special event were shared between The BRIT School and his own charity, We Are Family Foundation. The other Wing is named after the late Sir George Martin CBE who had a long association with The BRIT School, going back to when it opened in 1991.
With continued cuts to the School’s annual government grant, support from such events is essential to ensure The BRIT School can continue to invest in the broad creative vocational education, which is free, for the 1,400 students who come from all social backgrounds.
Nile’s visit to The BRIT School on Monday also marks his commitment to hold his BRIT Awards Viewing Party event again next year on behalf of both charities. This special event will be held on 18th February 2020, the same night as The BRIT Awards – itself a charitable event which raises funds for its music industry charity – The BRIT Trust (The BRIT School’s principal sponsor) – for distribution to a number of charities that promote education and well-being through music.
Nile Rodgers said, "It is a great honour to have the music wing at the incomparable BRIT School named after me alongside Sir George Martin. I’m very proud of what Merck and I have accomplished thus far to put a spotlight on the work they do and the work of the We Are Family Foundation. With that in mind we are going to do it all over again on February 18, 2020 - BRITs Night - with the 2nd Annual Nile Rodgers BRIT Awards Viewing Party at The Ned and hope to set new levels of support for the incredible efforts of these two worthy organisations. We’d like to thank Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), The Ned, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd, SPOTIFY, Sony/ATV, Live Nation, CAA, The-Dream, Poo Bear, Giorgio Tuinfort, Itaal Shur, TMS and Tricky Stewart for making 2018 such a success!”
The BRIT School was set up in 1991 and remains the only non-fee paying secondary school in the UK delivering specialised performing arts training in the UK. Since then, over 9,000 students have passed through its doors, including musicians and singers ranging from Adele, Katie Melua to Jessie J, Ella Eyre and Loyle Carner and more recently in 2019 hot picks Freya Ridings, Jade Bird, black midi and Octavian; to actors such as Tom Holland (Spiderman), Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife, The Good Fight) and Ashley Thomas (24:Legacy).
Stuart Worden, Principal of The BRIT School, said, “Nile Rodgers is the sound track to our lives: funk, disco, R'n'B, rock, hip hop – so many styles that have influenced so many incredible artists and he is an inspiration to every one of our students. We’re so grateful for the generosity of his time, his craft, and his financial support and that of Merck Mercuriadis for the School at this critical moment, and are honoured to dedicate an area of our Music Department in his name.”
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Picture (Ian Hippolyte)
Editors’ Notes
About Nile Rodgers
Among music legends, Nile Rodgers is truly exceptional. He amplifies his legacy as a multiple GRAMMY-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist by constantly traversing new musical terrain and successfully expanding the boundaries of popular music. As the co-founder of CHIC and the newly elected Chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rodgers pioneered a musical language that generated chart-topping hits like “Le Freak,” (the biggest selling single in the history of Atlantic Records!) and sparked the advent of hip-hop with “Good Times”. Nile Rodgers transcends all styles of music across every generation with a body of work that’s garnered him inductions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Most recently, he was appointed as the first ever Chief Creative Advisor for the legendary Abbey Road Studios and was included in “festival best” performances at both Glastonbury and Coachella that resulted in the BBC nominating the band for the BBC Music Awards as “Best Live Performance” and the LA Times stating “Nile Rodgers influence stretches all over Coachella, beaming the sound of a better future”.
His work in the CHIC Organization and his productions for artists like David Bowie, Diana Ross, and Madonna have sold over 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide while his innovative, trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Avicii, Sigala, Disclosure, and Sam Smith reflect the vanguard of contemporary music. Nile Rodgers & CHIC's new studio album, “It’s About Time”, was released to critical acclaim and a Top 10 position in the UK album charts.
About The BRIT School | brit.croydon.sch.uk
The BRIT School is a one of a kind FREE Performing Arts and Technology School. It is an independent state funded City College for the Technology of the Arts, dedicated to education and vocational training for the performing arts, media, art and design and the technologies that make performance possible.
As a school for 14 to 19-year-olds, it is unique and pioneering in its approach to education. It recognises that most students intend to make a career in the arts, entertainment and communications industries, but the school expects all to follow full time courses to completion. It is a vocational school for students set on a life devoted to art, dance, music, musical theatre, radio, television/film or theatre.
The BRIT School also prides itself on providing an excellent general education that helps prepare young people for the future. It encourages students to go on to specialist colleges and universities or into employment in the creative industries.
The School is devoted to all aspects of the Arts from, amongst some of the nine different strands it teaches; Film & Media Production, Interactive Digital Design, Applied Theatre and Music & Music Technology. It has formidable resources to allow students to study in sophisticated environments equivalent to a modern workplace but which require constant funding to ensure all equipment is up-to-date.
BRIT stands for the British Record Industry Trust. Without the generosity of the record industry and funding from the BRIT Awards, the school would never have been built and its superb facilities would never have been installed. Nearly 100% of leavers in the last six years have either gone into higher education and/or jobs in the creative sector, the fastest growing of the UK’s economy.
About We Are Family Foundation
We Are Family Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2002 by legendary musician Nile Rodgers and is dedicated to the vision of a global family by creating acclaimed youth programs such as Three Dot Dash and TEDxTeen (London & New York) that promote cultural diversity while nurturing and mentoring the vision, talents and ideas of young people globally who are positively changing the world. For more information: wearefamilyfoundation.org.uk
About the BPI (British Phonographic Industry)
The BPI champions the UK’s recorded music industry, safeguarding the rights of its members and of the artists, performers and label members of collecting body PPL. The BPI’s membership consists of well over 400 independent labels and the UK’s three ‘majors’, which together account for 85 per cent of legitimate domestic music consumption and 1 in 8 albums sold around the world.
The BPI promotes British music overseas through its trade missions and the Music Exports Growth Scheme. It provides insights, training and networking with its free masterclasses, Innovation Hub, Insight Sessions, WidsomWednesdays events, and reports. The BPI administers The BRIT Certified Awards, co-owns The Official Charts, organises The BRIT Awards and BRITs Week, and is also home to The Mercury Prize.
For Nile Rodgers and We Are Family Foundation
Fran Defeo PR
For The BRIT School
Alexa Cruickshank
Director of Communications
Jonathan Morrish
For BPI
Gennaro Castaldo
Director, Communications