The Genesis Foundation, a UK-registered charity, was established by John Studzinski in 2001. Over the past 21 years, the Foundation has donated more than £20 million to the arts. Through its funding and partnership model, it has enabled opportunities for thousands of young artists, primarily in theatre and music, building both their experience and their resilience. Cross-disciplinary networking and mentoring are inherent to the Genesis Foundation and crucial to its work.
The Foundation's main focus is on partnerships with leading arts organisations such as the Almeida Theatre, National Theatre, Young Vic Theatre, The Sixteen, and Jewish Book Week.
While largely devoting its regular funding to training programmes that equip emerging artists for life as a creative professional, the Genesis Foundation has also become the UK's largest commissioner of sacred music, having commissioned 30 new choral works to date. In 2020, the Genesis Foundation launched the COVID-19 Artists Fund, an emergency response to help freelancers facing hardship, and the £1 million Genesis Kickstart Fund to provide grants for future-facing arts projects across the UK, all employing outstanding freelance creative talent.
History
The Genesis Foundation was founded in January 2001 by investment banker and arts patron John Studzinski, CBE.
Since 2001, the Genesis Foundation has donated more than £20 million to the arts in the UK. Through its funding and partnership model, it has provided opportunities for thousands of young artists, primarily in theatre and music, building both their experience and their resilience.
In 2020, the foundation launched its £1m Genesis Kickstart Fund, designed to enable outstanding freelance artists to stay on their career paths and explore new possibilities in a world radically altered by COVID-19.
Partner organisations
National Theatre
In 2017 the Genesis Foundation launched a partnership with the National Theatre, collaborating with its artistic director Rufus Norris on the development of new forms of music theatre in the UK. The Genesis Music Theatre Programme is part of the National Theatre's New Work Department and is overseen by Marc Tritschler, who was appointed Creative Director of Music at the NT in 2020.
The first musical from the programme to reach the stage (in November 2021) was Hex, based on Sleeping Beauty. Hex returns to the stage of the National Theatre in late 2022.
The Foundation's relationship with Rufus Norris dates back to 2003, when he became the first Genesis Director at the Young Vic.
The Sixteen
Since 2010, the mainstay of the Genesis Foundation's partnership with leading British choral ensemble The Sixteen has been the Genesis Sixteen programme. Delivered at no charge to participants, it aims to nurture the next generation of talented choral singers and create a bridge between student and professional singing. It provides group tuition, individual mentoring and masterclasses run by vocal experts and is the only scheme of its kind. To date, more than 250 exceptional young singers have taken part of the programme.
The Genesis Foundation commissions new choral pieces from leading and emerging composers, which are premiered by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen and recorded for their record label CORO. James MacMillan’s Stabat mater, a 60-minute work for choir and string orchestra commissioned by the Genesis Foundation, was given its UK premiere by Harry Christophers, The Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican Centre, London in October 2016. The recording of the work was favourably reviewed and won numerous awards. In April 2018 a performance of the Stabat mater, presented by the Genesis Foundation, became the first concert to be live-streamed from the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. It subsequently received its US premiere in November 2019 at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen.
In May 2018, four new choral works commissioned by the Genesis Foundation were premiered at a live-streamed concert at Eton College Chapel. The four young composers were mentored by James Macmillan and Harry Christophers and drew on texts from the Eton Choirbook.
Past Genesis commissions include ‘Spirit, Strength & Sorrow’, three new Stabat Mater pieces by composers Alissa Firsova, Tõnu Kõrvits and Matthew Martin; ‘O Guiding Night’, music to poetry of the Spanish Mystics St. Teresa of Ávila and St. John of the Cross by Ruth Byrchmore, Tarik O'Regan and Roderick Williams; settings of Padre Pio’s Prayer by James MacMillan, Roxanna Panufnik and Will Todd, and Will Todd’s Among Angels, commissioned in honour of John Studzinski’s 50th birthday.