The Silver Clef fundraising committee was founded in 1976 by musicians and managers from across the British music industry, who wanted to honour and award music artists whilst raising funds for Nordoff Robbins. The event went on to become the annual Silver Clef Awards and Lunch, an important date in the social and business calendar of the music industry, with even members of the Royal Family attending as guests of honour. The lunch is also the flagship event in the highly respected and well-known diary of fundraising events put on by Nordoff Robbins. The Silver Clef initiative eventually expanded to the USA, where members of the music community there arranged the first American Silver Clef Award Dinner and Auction in 1989. The funds from that event benefited the Nordoff Robbins Centre for Music Therapy based at New York University. In 1990 a concert was devised to raise money for the Nordorff Robbins music therapy centre, it was held at Knebworth park on the 30th June 1990.