Elena and Alex Gerko, founders of XTX Markets, have donated £1.5m to the Orchestra's Always Playing Appeal.
The generous gift to the LSO offers seed funding to the Always Playing Appeal, which aims to raise a minimum of £5 million before summer 2021.
The donation follows on from the government’s Arts Recovery Fund grant on Monday 12 October when the LSO received £846,000.
Elena and Alex Gerko comment, "We have enjoyed hundreds of LSO concerts over the last 15 years and are very happy to help the orchestra in these difficult times.”
Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the LSO thanked the Gerkos for this gift: “To have received this generous gift from Alex and Elena Gerko and further government support is a wonderful endorsement and start to the campaign, we are hugely grateful.
These funds will help the LSO sustain it’s the world-class status and the membership of outstanding musicians, and assist in the Orchestra’s returning to live performances, first in London and then further afield. It is also our ambition to expand our digital reach, as the demand grows, fulfilling our mission of sharing the greatest music with the greatest number of people, and helping develop new international streams of support.”
Always Playing was the title given to the series of regular free digital archive concerts, chamber performances and coffee break concerts that LSO delivered and the musicians played from their homes during the lockdown in March 2020 until their return to playing together as an Orchestra at the beginning of September at LSO St Luke’s.
Main image: © LSO