Nelson School of Music Great Musical Raffle

‘One in 200’ is excellent odds in a raffle, even more attractive when the first prize is a $5000 Toss Woollaston watercolour and every dollar of the $100 ticket price is a donation to the Nelson School of Music building restoration fund.

“Although generous individual and corporate donations have been rolling in, The Great Musical Raffle is the first community event project in the School’s $1.4million fundraising campaign. Fundraising committee Chair Colleen Marshall says she’s thrilled that the full proceeds will to go to the campaign.

“Our first prize is a very generous donation from the Toss Woollaston Trust, the 1987 watercolour ‘The Bassoon Player’ depicting a local orchestra member, and the second prize is a mat by Nelson carpet artist Steve Whittington, also in the musical theme, with a red treble clef and the first few notes of Schubert’s ‘Musical Moments’, from Moments Musicaux Opus 94.”

Philip Woollaston said Toss was a great lover of classical music and would certainly approve of the donation of the water colour.
“He attended many concerts in the School of Music auditorium, as have Chan and I, so we’re very happy for the Trust to make the donation and pleased that we had a suitable art work with a musical subject,” he said. “The School of Music is central to the cultural history of Nelson – it is a very valuable performance venue with outstanding characteristics.”

Second prize is ‘The Musical Mat’ made by Steve Whittington of Floor Artz Nelson.

“I remember the School of Music as an icon from when I was a boy so I’m happy to do what I can to see it restored,” he says. “A friend had the idea of using a bar of music, I’m not musical so I had to work from the sheet music that Colleen Marshall gave me – I didn’t want to upset any musicians by getting it wrong. It was quite a detailed and intricate project to do.”

Colleen Marshall said the wider community is showing great support for the rebuild, which was is evident in the help offered for the raffle project.

“In a great gesture of collegial support The Suter will have the two art works on display from Saturday and will be our sole ticket outlet,” she said. “’The Bassoon Player’ has been elegantly framed by The Framing Rooms, Nimbus Design has created the stylish tickets and Potton and Burton have printed them, all at no charge. This means the $20,000 raised will go straight into our fundraising coffers.”

The art works go on display at the Suter on Saturday and the 200 tickets, priced at $100 each, go on sale there from 9.30am on the same day. People can pay by cash, eftpos, or credit card at the gallery, open seven days a week. Phone sales only to out of towners 548 4699. The raffle will be drawn on Wed 30 Sept under Police supervision, with the results published in the Nelson Mail on Saturday 3 October.

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