Soprano Anna Netrebko and bass-baritone Erwin Schrott have created a charitable foundation to support disabled and disadvantaged children. On 18 May in Munich the couple established the Anna and Erwin Foundation – Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott for Kids.
The foundation aims to benefit children and teenagers in early education, art and culture, as well as offering child and youth services, and supporting physically and mentally disabled children. It starts with an endowment of £40,500 (€50,000) from the singers’ private funds. The couple said they wanted to use their high profiles to help young people. The first institutions to benefit from Anna Netrebko and Erwin Schrott for Kids include SOS Children’s Village, a children’s hospital in St Petersburg; Austrian children’s charity Unser Kind, and Spanish Foundation A.Va.Pa.Ce.
Netrebko and Schrott said: 'We have wanted to help all of our lives. At some point we said to ourselves: Let’s do something serious. Of course, our popularity gives us the opportunity to make use of it for children in need of help.' They described the charity as a 'dream come true.'
Netrebko has worked extensively with charities in the past, including her own 'Anna' project to aid orphanages in Kaliningrad, as well as the Roerich Heritage charity fund and Russian Children’s Welfare.