Music Rising to help Nashville musicians affected by floods

Music Rising, a campaign launched in 2005 to aid the musicians of the Gulf Coast Region after the hurricane disasters of Katrina and Rita, has pledged support to the city of Nashville and its musicians affected by the recent floods. Music Rising, co-founded by U2’s the Edge, legendary producer Bob Ezrin and Gibson Guitar CEO and Chairman Henry Juszkiewicz, announced its partnership with MusiCares® in cooperation with the Gibson Foundation to administer the Music Rising Nashville Flood Relief efforts that will aid musicians with the repair and replacement of instruments damaged or destroyed in the recent Tennessee floods.

Effective immediately, Music Rising will donate $250,000 to MusiCares to be used specifically for Music Rising/Nashville Flood Relief. These funds will be earmarked to help musicians in the Nashville area repair or replace instruments that fell victim to the flood waters. Hundreds of musicians who call Nashville home have lost instruments and equipment. In the aftermath of the floods, as the entire city is trying to grasp the enormity of the loss, the musicians are hoping they will have the instruments they need to perform. Anyone interested in donating to Music Rising's Nashville Flood Relief effort and increasing the initial $250,000 donation can do so by going to www.gibsonfoundation.org and clicking on Flood Relief donations. Contributions should be noted by the donor with the request to go directly to Music Rising Nashville.

“When we created Music Rising in 2005, our mission was to help rebuild and preserve the musical culture of the Central Gulf Region. We started by replacing musicians' instruments that were lost or destroyed by the hurricanes,” said co-founder Bob Ezrin, “and we continue to expand our efforts to benefit the region’s musical heritage. Now, it’s our responsibility to help Nashville’s music community recover from these historic floods, and Music Rising will do just that.”

“As a co-founding partner, Gibson Guitar will continue to support Music Rising. As we have done in the Gulf Region, we plan on staying the course until the Nashville music community has recovered.” said Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO and Chairman of Gibson Guitar. “It continues to be a great honor to work aside the Edge of U2 and producer Bob Ezrin in every effort of Music Rising. We will see Nashville rise again and it will be better than ever.”

“MusiCares is very proud to be partnering with the Gibson Foundation on another Music Rising program — this time to put instruments back into the hands of musicians in Nashville," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy® and MusiCares. "It is especially poignant to be providing this assistance to music people in the home to Gibson’s headquarters, given its longtime philanthropic support of the global music community.”

“Nashville is a treasure chest of Southern heritage and American musical tradition and is indisputably the world’s Country Music capital. But it’s more than that. It is also home to one of the greatest concentrations of musical talent on earth,” said U2’s the Edge. “The news of the floods brought back terrible memories of Katrina and when Anderson Cooper of CNN titled his new coverage Nashville Rising it became obvious what we had to do.”

In order to be considered for assistance, musicians must complete the confidential application process. Each applicant must be able to demonstrate that they have a damaged or destroyed instrument. MusiCares will be handling the verification. Beginning Monday, May 17, 2010, the MusiCares (www.musicares.com), Music Rising (www.musicrising.org) and Gibson Foundation (www.gibsonfoundation.org) sites will have applications, contact numbers and information for musicians who would like to apply. Music Rising / Nashville Flood Relief, is administered by MusiCares in partnership with Gibson Foundation.

About Music Rising:
Music Rising, a campaign launched in 2005 to replace musical instruments lost or destroyed by hurricanes in the Gulf Region was co-founded by U2’s the Edge, producer Bob Ezrin and Gibson Guitar CEO and Chairman Henry Juszkiewicz. The campaign has since aided over 2,700 musicians and over 50,000 students and choir members in its initial three phases. In its fourth phase Music Rising plans on preserving the rich musical heritage of the Gulf Coast with a dedicated academic program which will be announced late 2010.

Partners of Music Rising represent one of the most diverse partnerships in the entertainment industry and include MusiCares, Guitar Center Music Foundation, Musician’s Friend, Julien’s Auctions, Live Nation, Kennedy/Marshall,Ticketmaster, Hard Rock International, VH-1 Networks, MTV Networks, Real Networks, ABC News Now, The NFL, Rolling Stone Magazine, Mr. Holland’s Opus, ACT and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.

Music Rising is the recipient of the prestigious 2005 Halo Award for Cause Marketing, 2006 Billboard Humanitarian Award, the 2008 PRISM Award and has been recognized around the world by various media organizations. Music Rising has launched Music Rising Nashville to aid the musicians who lost instruments in the May 2010 floods. Music Rising is administered by the Gibson Foundation.

For more information go to www.musicrising.org or www.gibsonfoundation.org

About MusiCares:
Established in 1989 by The Recording Academy®, MusiCares® provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need. MusiCares' services and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies, and each case is treated with integrity and confidentiality. MusiCares also focuses the resources and attention of the music industry on human service issues that directly impact the health and welfare of the music community.

For more information, please visit www.musicares.com.