Andrew Lloyd Webber Raises Over £500,000 For Music Education By Selling Wine Collection

Andrew Lloyd Webber has raised £517,910 for The Music in Secondary Schools Trust by selling his wine collection. The MiSST, which provides access to free instruments, weekly tuition and a classical music curriculum to nearly 30,000 students, administers Lloyd Webber’s Music in Schools Programme.

The highest price that was achieved was Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Romanée-Conti 2005 (three bottles), which raised £45,000, followed by Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, La Tâche 2005 (six bottles), raising £40,000.

Lloyd Webber’s sale enable a further 4,000 students to join the program, extending MiSST’s mission of improving the lives of underprivileged students through music. 

“I am absolutely delighted that the sale of my wine cellar has raised over a half a million pounds for my music in schools programme. To date over 30,000 children have taken part in the project and the sale means that 4,000 additional kids will be able to join,” the composer said. “My programme gives each child a free musical instrument and a weekly music lesson. It is administered by the Music In Secondary Schools Trust whose expertise and dedication in this area is unrivalled.”

Lloyd Webber is passionate about the importance of musical education and diversity in the arts. In Britain, The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation provides 30 performing arts scholarships every year for talented students with financial need and supports a range of projects and commissioning research into diversity in theater.

In the United States, the American Theatre Wing’s Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative provides grant funding directly to under-resourced public schools for their theater programs and provides scholarships to grade school and university students pursuing studies in theater.

Andrew Lloyd Webber (Composer) has composed the scores of some of the world’s most famous musicals. When Sunset Boulevard joined School of Rock, CATS, and The Phantom of the Opera he equaled Rodgers & Hammerstein’s record of four shows running simultaneously on Broadway. He is one of the select group of artists with EGOT status, having received Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.

In New York, hard on the heels of the Tony Award-winning revival of Sunset Boulevard, Lloyd Webber recently opened Masquerade which brings audiences closer than ever before to his global phenomenon, The Phantom of the Opera, and CATS: The Jellicle Ball the Harlem Ballroom reimagining of his iconic musical which recently opened to rave reviews on Broadway.

Lloyd Webber owns six London theaters including the iconic London Palladium and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Reopened in July 2021, the latter was completely restored and renovated at a cost of over $80 million. His mantra is that every penny of profit made from his theaters is put back into the buildings.

In 2023 Andrew Lloyd Webber partnered with Michael Harrison to produce new productions of existing work and his future musicals. His latest, The Illusionist, will be produced in London in 2027. His revival of EVITA, starring Rachel Zegler, is headed to Broadway in spring 2027.

Photo Credit: Bruce Glikas