I founded Music That Lives because I believe that a large part of our historic classical musical heritage is at serious risk of being lost forever.

We live in a society where historic keyboard instruments and manuscripts are too often treated as decaying relics of the past. They remain underfunded, underestimated, and undervalued, largely forgotten not only by the public, but also by many government bodies, educational institutions, museums, libraries, and even professional arts organisations and funding bodies.

That said, it is important to acknowledge the institutions that are making significant efforts. The Royal College of Music, Oxford (Bate), Edinburgh (Russell), the Royal Academy of Music and The Horniman Museum all maintain stable collections. Yet even in these cases, growth is restricted by space and by the conditions attached to bequests, and accredited museums face serious limitations when it comes to de-accessioning, which makes collection management especially challenging.

Still, despite these positive examples, the broader picture is one of vulnerability: without immediate and dedicated action, much of this heritage will vanish before it can be properly catalogued, studied, and preserved. If we let it disappear, we are not only losing objects, but also centuries of human creativity and expression—a vital part of our shared musical heritage.

While preservation and restoration matters and is at the core of our mission, at this critical stage it is not enough. To truly safeguard this heritage, we must keep it alive: by restoring instruments so they can sing again, by performing music on them so audiences hear their voices, by preserving historic manuscripts so scholars, musicians, and students can uncover centuries’ worth of information, and by inspiring composers to create new music that keeps these instruments relevant. And most importantly - by connecting with, encouraging and inspiring young people to join us and take part in this mission. This is the only way to ensure that historic tonal classical music heritage remains part of our living culture—both at present and in the future.

If we lose this significant part of Britain’s Music Heritage, we will rob not only ourselves, but also our children and grandchildren. We will rob them of a legacy that has shaped Britain’s and Europe’s cultural identity for centuries.

My mission is to ensure that these instruments, scores, and the knowledge they carry do not vanish within our lifetime.

This is the vision of Music That Lives.

I invite you to join me in protecting and sustaining this inheritance - so that our children, and their children after them, will inherit not silence, but music heritage that breathes, sings and thrives.

Misty Jade
Founder & Artistic Director
Music That Lives