A Gift of Music
A private tribute,
a Royal connection
How a composition written for no audience became a decade of charitable giving.
A Gift of Music
How a composition written for no audience became a decade of charitable giving.
There are moments in a life that cannot be planned. This is one of them.
When Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother died in March 2002, Dr. Olga Thomas did what composers do in moments of deep feeling: she wrote music. Not for publication. Not for performance. Simply for herself — a private act of tribute and grief, a celebration of an extraordinary life. She called it Themes of Life and Glory. She did not imagine anyone outside her own home would ever hear it.
St James's Palace
Cruse Bereavement Support — the UK's leading bereavement charity, for which Her Majesty The Queen served as Royal Patron for over thirty-eight years — was preparing to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary at St James's Palace, in the presence of Her Majesty herself.
Carroll Forth, a trustee of both Cruse and Arcava, asked the question: what do you give a Queen as an anniversary gift? The room agreed there was nothing material she did not already have. It was Carroll who suggested the gift of music. Carroll thought of Olga.
And so, on 8 October 2009, Dr. Thomas presented to Her Majesty a piece she had written alone, as a private act of love — now offered as a gift of the heart from one woman to another.
Restoring Hope
The music presented at the Palace became the heart of a limited edition souvenir CD: Restoring Hope, created in celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Cruse Bereavement Care. Intimate in scale, profound in meaning, produced in soft lavender — a commemorative document made to be given rather than sold.
It contained three original compositions by Dr. Thomas, including the anthem Restoring Hope performed with violinist Lorraine McAslan, who donated her time entirely to the charity, and For Eric — dedicated to the memory of the Rt. Hon. Eric Forth MP. A circle of friendship, grief and music, closed in the most personal of ways.
Arcava — the bridge between music and charity
Every Royal commemorative release by Dr. Thomas is channelled through Arcava's dedicated music account. The proceeds flow in from iTunes, streaming platforms and CD sales. They flow out — one hundred percent, transparently, directly — to Cruse Bereavement Support and the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity. The transfers are labelled. The accounts are filed. The Charity Commission record is up to date.
When you give to Arcava, everything you give reaches the people it is meant for. Every pound. Every time.
A Catalogue of Royal Commemoration
Among many other original Royal compositions — including Themes of Life and Glory, Celebration, Royal Hollywood Love Song, Her Platinum Crown and His Noble Crown — each released publicly and each donating one hundred percent of its proceeds to charity through Arcava.
Watch & Listen
Every purchase and every stream of Dr. Thomas's recordings generates a charitable donation. Listen, buy, and share.