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Annette Urso Rickel Foundation Commits to Five More Years of Support for Proyecto Olga Iglesias, Pledging $20,000 a Year Through 2030

Press Release

San Juan, Puerto Rico – The Proyecto Olga Iglesias (OIP) is proud to announce that the Annette Urso Rickel Foundation has made its most significant commitment to date: a multi-year pledge of $20,000 per year for five years, spanning 2026 through 2030. The first installment, for 2026, has already been funded, opening the foundation's sixth consecutive year of support and transforming a year-by-year relationship into a guaranteed five-year horizon.

The commitment secures $100,000 in future funding and builds on the $85,000 the foundation invested across its first five years (2021–2025) — already OIP's largest and most sustained source of philanthropic support. Together, the partnership is on track to reach $185,000 in total investment in Puerto Rican classical music education by the end of the decade.

For an organization that has grown grant by grant, the shift from annual renewals to a five-year guarantee is a turning point. It allows OIP to plan beyond a single budget cycle — to make multi-year commitments to its artists in residence, to the schools that host its educational recitals, and to the long-term preservation of the Olga Iglesias collection.

"A multi-year commitment changes everything. For five years the Annette Urso Rickel Foundation believed in us one grant at a time; now they have given us a five-year horizon, and with it the freedom to make promises we know we can keep: to our artists in residence, to the schools that count on us, and to the families who trust us to keep Puerto Rican classical music alive. This is no longer simply funding a program; it is building an institution, together."

Anthony Cheney Guzmán, Founder and Executive Director of OIP

The funding will continue to anchor the Olga Iglesias Artist Residency, supporting paid performances, mentorship, and professional development for emerging Puerto Rican classical singers, while also sustaining OIP's school outreach, its commissioning of new educational work such as La Batalla de los Clásicos, and the ongoing digital preservation of the Olga Iglesias collection.

About the Annette Urso Rickel Foundation

The Annette Urso Rickel Foundation supports student education through scholarships and grants that fund specialized studies and create educational models with lasting classroom impact. Dedicated to STEAM education — where the arts stand alongside science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — the foundation favors sustained, multi-year investment over one-time gifts, focusing on initiatives that inspire students and build durable capacity in the schools and nonprofit organizations it supports. Its long partnership with OIP stands as a model of how patient philanthropy can help a young cultural organization mature into a lasting institution.