Fundación EDPNews

Through its Foundation, EDP wishes to consolidate and boost collaboration with the Albéniz Foundation in a bid to broaden its social projects and links to the education and culture sector. To do so, EDP Chairman Miguel Stilwell visited the school with Paloma O'Shea, President and Founder of the Reina Sofía Higher Musical School.

In the course of the visit, energy company EDP declared its support for organisation of the artistic activities during the annual tour by the EDP Foundation's Camerata, including the traditional Christmas concert at Santander Cathedral, with sponsorship of the Santander Encounter of Music and Academy and the Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition.

In the image: Julia Sánchez, CEO of Escuela Reina Sofía; Miguel Stilwell, Chairman of EDP y Paloma O'Shea, Chairwoman of Escuela Reina Sofía.

With the Albéniz Foundation projects, the EDP Foundation acts as sponsor of the Santander Encounter of Music and Academy and the Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition. It is also continuing its sponsorship of the Reina Sofía Higher Musical School with a chamber group, backing and operating the School's Camerata.

The EDP Foundation will also provide two scholarships for students at the Reina Sofía Musical School. This will help with the training of young artistes by the Albéniz Foundation through the Reina Sofía Higher Musical School, a most prestigious international higher music training centre based in Madrid, which will be celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2021. The students taking the scholarships for 2021/2022 are flautist Ana Ferraz and horn player Rui Sergio Coelho Gil Godinho.

Assistance from the private sector for the School project is essential to achieve one of the objectives of its academic philosophy: ensuring that all young people with talent can study there, through scholarships to pay for the cost of their classes. This means that all students at the School are enrolled free of charge.

To quote Miguel Stilwell, EDP Chairman: “this project helps boost our commitment to culture and assistance to develop the talent of younger people. We will also continue to focus on projects such as this, with the main objective of making a contribution to the development of a more inclusive society and a better future”.

Paloma O’Shea, meanwhile, remarked that "everything we do at the Reina Sofía Musical School is based on the conviction that music has the tremendous power to transform people and societies. Our close cooperation with the EDP Foundation enables us to take the benefits of music to many people, and this gives me great satisfaction. Sponsorship by the EDP Foundation also helps us strengthen the two main focuses of our activity: Madrid and Cantabria."