The Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund (the Fund) was set up in 1980 with a donation of $10 million from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust (the Trust). The objectives of the Fund are to promote training and education in music and dance in Hong Kong by way of conferring scholarships to enable young musicians and dancers of outstanding calibre to pursue further studies in music and dance outside Hong Kong.
In view of the increasing demand for supporting music and dance education in Hong Kong, the Trust provided in 1994 a further injection of $22 million to meet the increasing demand.
With a further donation of around $17 million from the Trust, the Fund implemented a six-year pilot project, which included the launch of a local scholarship scheme starting from 2015/16 for candidates of outstanding calibre to pursue further studies in Hong Kong and set up of Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Awardees Association for the past awardees of the Fund. In 2021, a grant of around $5.7 million was approved by the Trust to continue funding the local scholarship scheme and to organize the Awardees Association community programmes for a period of three years. In 2023, the Trust also further approved an additional three-year funding of $15 million to continue supporting the non-local scholarship scheme.
Up to 8 August 2024, the Fund has awarded 388 scholarships which amounted to about $92.41 million to young musicians and dancers of outstanding calibre.