Program

New Music Organization Fund

This program is for outstanding organizations which work regularly with, and support the development of, music creators and artists and offer a crucial resource to their community.

Applications Open

Apply Now
Due April 4, 2024
Programs
Program

New Music Organization Fund

This program is for outstanding organizations which work regularly with, and support the development of, music creators and artists and offer a crucial resource to their community.

Applications Open
Due April 4, 2024
Apply Now
Connect with Us

Funders

New Music USA’s Organization Fund is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and with support from the Howard Gilman Foundation, Fifth House Ensemble, and The Cheswatyr Foundation. 

The New Music Organization Fund offers grants to non-profit organizations, performance groups, dance organizations, festivals, presenters, and venues that need support to sustain their programming of new music, nurturing of music creators, and other services.  This program is for outstanding organizations that work regularly with and support the development of music creators and artists and offer crucial resources to their community.  The main criteria for this fund are: 

  • artistry of applicant organization and/or supported artists; 
  • impact on the community of artists and/or audiences served, 
  • need for funding now; and  
  • the organization’s commitment to equity and inclusion.  

Approach 

We aim to support and represent a broad range of organizations across different US cities and music genres. Organizations can apply for funding through one of the following strands: General Operating Support, Creation of New Work, or Live Music for Dance projects. 

We are particularly interested in supporting organizations that have a deep and consistent impact on their community of artists and music lovers. For this reason, we are asking applicants to submit an endorsement from a member of their community as part of the application. For organizations seeking general operating support, this endorsement could come from an artist, stakeholder, or audience member (see below). For organizations seeking support for creation of a new work or grants for music for dance, the endorsement should be a letter of support from the collaborating composer/ musician. 

Successful applicant organizations will exhibit some or all of the following traits:  

  • Commitment to programming new music and providing opportunities for creators throughout the year/season 
  • Commitment to commissioning and facilitating the creation of new work 
  • Demonstrated artistic merit and performance history of the applicant institution 
  • Commitment to relationship building and collaboration with artists, other organizations, and the community 
  • Offering of learning, engagement, and/or artist development or educational opportunities and commitment to building future audiences for the organization’s work 
  • Commitment to cultivating creativity, as well as leveraging new music in service of individual and community transformation 

This year we aim to fund approximately 60 to 70 organizations with an average award of $7,000. You may apply for up to $15,000. During this year, our funding comes from New Music USA’s endowment (see below), annual trust/foundations and special funds from Fifth House Ensemble for organizations engaged in their community and its transformation.   

Funding Areas 

Organizations can apply for funding through one of the following strands: General Operating Support, Creation of New Work, or Live Music for Dance projects.

General Operating Support 

This strand is for outstanding organizations that work regularly with, and support the development of, music creators and artists and offer crucial resources to their community. The fund area is to be used for general operating costs which support the organization’s regular programming of, and collaboration with US/territories-based composers and artists. It does not need to be tied to any specific project, but we are asking you to tell us about the programs, events, and initiatives that best align with New Music USA’s support.  Organizations applying must have an operating budget of under $3 million over the last three years. 

Organizations seeking general support will be asked to present their year-round work on or offline, including: 

  • Music program planned 
  • Opportunities provided to artists and music creators 
  • Community of artists served (we support music creators/artists based in the US and US territories) 
  • Audiences the activity will reach 
  • Impact on their community
     

Creation of New Work 

This strand is intended for a specified new music project/ program. We are particularly interested in funding the creation and/or commissioning of new work. Projects must take place anytime between July 2024 and June 2026. There are no restrictions on the organization’s operating budget.  


Live Music for Dance  

This strand is for dance organizations that work regularly with music creators and musicians. The fund aims to support and encourage the use and creation of new and live music for dance performances, support collaborations between music creators/composers and choreographers, foster meaningful collaborations between musicians and dance companies, and create performance opportunities for musicians. 

These funds can support musician or music creator fees, artist/choreographer time for collaboration with the composer, commission fees, and dancer fees for the project. Projects must take place anytime between July 2024 and June 2026. There are no restrictions on the organization’s operating budget. 

Review Process

Applications will be screened first by staff for eligibility and completeness. Applications will then move forward to a peer review process completed by approximately 20 panelists working from around the country. Panelists will review each application against the criteria listed below providing a score that will then be averaged to create a ranked list. All criteria will be equally weighted during the review process. Award determinations will be made using the ranked list, considering any funding restrictions as needed.  

Review Criteria 

Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria. All will be equally weighted during the review process.

New Music USA is committed to inclusive and equitable treatment across all our activities. We serve a diverse community of applicants and grantees, and we welcome the unique contributions that all artists bring in terms of their education, opinions, religion, culture, music style, ethnicity, race, gender, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, dis/ability, sexual orientation, languages spoken, religious beliefs, and geography. We encourage applications from all people including Black, Indigenous, People of Color, LGBTQIA+ led organizations, and organizations representing persons with dis/abilities.

  • Artistry – as demonstrated by the quality of the submitted music examples; artistry of the organization’s programming including creators, and/or musicians involved 
  • Impact – the impact the organization has on its community of artists and audiences served; this includes a history of the regular and ongoing performing, programming, and engagement of diverse living US/territoriesbased music creators and/or impact on the creators and musicians involved  
  • Need – how you’d use the support and why it is important to the applicant organization now  
  • Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion – as demonstrated by the diversity of artists presented and/or the organization’s commitment to equity and inclusion  

Please see the FAQS for a breakdown of the Review Criteria. 

Eligibility 

This fund is for organizations only; individuals may not apply.

General Operating Support 

Applicant organizations must:

  • be based and doing work in the US.
  • have a commitment to producing, performing, and/or commissioning the work of living, US/territories-based music creators.
  • be committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion in their organization, engagement, and programming.
  • be committed to working and performing in their community.
  • have a minimum of three years of performing, programming, and budget activity at the time of the application.
  • not have an annual budget that exceeds $3 million over the last three years
  • have a dedicated organizational bank account.
  • not be a university.


Creation of New Work/ Live Music for Dance
 

Applicant Organizations 

  • Presenting organization must be based and doing work in the US.  
  • Presenting organizations must have at least three years of performing, programming, and budget activity at the time of the application.
  • Any newly commissioned work must be entirely new work. Proposals for expansions, arrangements or re-stagings of existing works are not eligible.  
  • If your group was an Organization Fund 2023 awardee, you must have completed all awarded activities from Creation of New Music/Live Music for Dance by June 2024 and have submitted a final report.

Applicant creators/musicians 

  • Creator and/or musicians must be based and doing work in the US and remain so for the duration of the project. 
  • Supported artists must not be enrolled in a degree-giving program. 
  • Artists must have completed any and all previous awards from New Music USA including the Creator Fund, Next Jazz Legacy, Reel Change, and Amplifying Voices. 

Deadline and Timeline 

The application portal opens March 7, 2024 at 2pm Eastern. The deadline is April 4, 2024 at 11:59 pm Eastern. Decisions will be made in June 2024. Funds for General Operating Support are to be used for the 2024-25 season (July through June). Creation of New Work and Live Music for Dance funds are to be used between July 2024 and June 2026 based on project timeline. 

QUESTIONS?  

  

2023 Organization Fund Awardees 

Discover the music and artists supported by last year’s award here and check out the 2023 Organization Fund Spotify Playlist and YouTube Playlist. 

(Pictured above: ShaLeigh Dance Works Photo by Slater Mapp) 

2023 Organization Fund Awardees - Live Music for Dance

Ananya Dance Theatre

Minneapolis, MN

Choreographer Ananya Chatterjea, with the BIPOC women and femme dancers of Ananya Dance Theatre, composer/musicians and guest collaborators, will create ANTARANGA: BETWEEN YOU AND ME, an original full-length transnational feminist contemporary dance theater work, in ADT’s tradition of social justice choreography.

Art of the Matter Performance Foundation/Deborah Slater Dance Theater

San Francisco, CA

Deborah Slater Dance Theater’s “In the Presence of Absence” explores how a diverse array of individuals have endured the chaotic impact of a global pandemic through an intersectional lens, culminating in a multimedia dance theater piece featuring dance, spoken word, video projection, and original music by composer Marcus Shelby.

AXIS Dance Company

Berkeley, CA

"Silenciosa Luna", will explore how we embed audio-description in choreography and music for a dance work without diminishing the artistic idea. "Silenciosa Luna" will be a 15 minute dance piece choreographed by Nadia Adame with 5 AXIS Company dancers and will include Alisa Rasera as a collaborator embedding audio-description within the performance and Kev Choice as the composer.

Creative Netwerk

Astoria, NY

Two legendary producers, DJ T-Rell from Chicago and H Rockz from New York City, will create original music for a joint Chicago Footwork and Litefeet Mixtape, which will be live-streamed online for educational purposes, used in our weekly community programming spaces, and featured at two culminating community events focused on unifying the cultures of Chicago Footwork and Harlem Litefeet.

Dark Circles Contemporary Dance (DCCDUSA)

Las Cruces, NM

Dark Circles Contemporary Dance collaborates with composer Brandon Carson for "Ten-Gallon," premiering in October 2023 in El Paso, TX. Created and choreographed by Joshua L. Peugh, the work reimagines the Western genre, honoring the contributions of BIPOC and queer individuals in shaping the American West.

Flyaway Productions

San Francisco, CA

Choreographer Jo Kreiter and composer Xoa Asa are collaborating on Flyaway Productions' site-specific dance--Ode to Jane—to connect struggles for bodily autonomy via reproductive justice with struggles for autonomy in housing and addiction recovery.

Heidi Duckler Dance

Los Angeles, CA

Heidi Duckler Dance (HDD) has commissioned NY-based composer Jessie Cox to create an original score for a new site-specific performance work, “Herald In and Examine Throughout,” premiering at the Herald Examiner Building in Los Angeles in Spring 2024. Cox’s score will be performed live alongside original choreography by Heidi Duckler.

Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project

New York, NY

Founded in 2016 by award-winning artist Jeremy McQueen, The Black Iris Project (BIP) is an Emmy® award-winning ballet collaborative and education vehicle which creates new, relevant classical & contemporary ballet works that celebrate diversity and Black history.

José Limón Dance Foundation

New York, NY

These funds support the work of choreographer Aszure Barton and award-winning composer Ambrose Akinmusire, who are using José Limón’s personal notes to reimagine The Eumenides – Doris Humphrey’s never-recorded masterwork exploring impossible moral choices (originally choreographed to a soaring orchestral score by Darius Milhaud).

Katha Dance Theatre

Crystal, MN

Katha Dance Theatre will present the world premiere of PRAKRITIR PRATISODH -- Nature’s Revenge! in November 2023 at the Twin Cities’ premiere dance venue, The Cowles Center. The production will showcase an original score composed by Vinod Krishnan of Atlanta, and choreography by master Kathak artist, Rita Mustaphi, of Minneapolis.

La Donna Dance

New York, NY

Composer okkyung lee creates an original score for choreographer Donna Uchizono for "March," a tri-section dance work together with Tendayi Kuumba and Annie-B Parson, envisioned as three discrete sections by three choreographers celebrating and interrogating our human compulsion to dance together.

LED

Boise, ID

LED is an award-winning arts organization that weaves signature contemporary choreography, original musical compositions, and elements of film into thought-provoking narratives and inspiring stories that are redefining the boundaries of performing arts.

Nava Dance Theatre

San Francisco, CA

Nava Dance Theatre is a bharatanatyam dance company which uses the south Indian dance form to navigate place, identity, and politics through the lens of our lived experience.

ODC Theater

San Francisco, CA

ODC Theater exists to empower and develop innovative artists. It participates in the creation of new works through commissioning, presenting, mentorship and space access; it develops informed, engaged and committed audiences; and advocates for the performing arts as an essential component to the economic and cultural development of our community.

Parsons Dance

New York, NY

New Music USA support of Parsons Dance will support commissions by composer Michael Wall and choreographer Penny Saunders with live music for dance at 10 performances at The Joyce Theater in New York City.

ShaLeigh Dance Works

Durham, NC

ShaLeigh Dance Works (SDW) is a nonprofit, dance-theatre company dedicated to inspiring people of all abilities, social backgrounds, cultures, and generations with the transformative power of dance; funds will support the 2023 new music program enVISION: The Next Chapter, which researches the perception of music and sound in the absence of vision and how access informs our creative process.

The Leela Institute

West Hills, CA

The Leela Institute advances India’s rich artistic traditions by supporting the creation, development, and performance of cutting edge artistic works of kathak dance; providing comprehensive education in kathak for children, youth and adults; and engaging in strategic public activities to raise broad-based awareness of India’s rich artistic and cultural heritage.

Treehouse Shakers

New York, NY

Treehouse Shakers creates original programming for babies to teens, which includes a NYC Season, touring, workshops and school programming. For the upcoming NYC season we will present The Deepest Breath, as part of our LGBTQIA+ initiative, Flutter for Babies, Sail Away for toddlers, and The Littlest Cove for ages 3-6.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre

Brooklyn, NY

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre is a multidisciplinary company of majority BIPOC artists presenting invigorating performance and education programs in the US and internationally, that increase access to- and promote understanding through - the arts.

2023 Organization Fund Awardees - Creation of New Work

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts

Omaha, NE

The Sound Art + Experimental Music Program is a specialized track embedded within Bemis Center’s international Residency Program, offering two- and three-month residencies to artists pushing the boundaries of sound, composition, voice, and music of all genres. Integral parts of the Sound Program include Bemis’s facilities for rehearsing and recording new work, and a music venue, LOW END.

Cal Performances

Berkeley, CA

Cal Performances will commission a major new work by composer Gabriella Smith for new music ensemble yMusic. The 40-minute piece for amplified ensemble integrates underwater field recordings and is inspired by ocean ecosystems from around the planet.

Contemporary Youth Orchestra

Cleveland, Ohio

CYO will commission composer and photographer Dylan Trần to write a multi-movement, community-sourced, multi-media, photo-orchestral piece entitled "(in)halation: breathing/blooming together," bringing together two art forms wherein process and community involvement are key.

EMPAC / Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center

Troy, NY

EMPAC / Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer partners with The Living Earth Show to commission and support the creation of a new music work by composer Raven Chacon and support the creation of a new music production led by composer M. Lamar. The partnership is organized by EMPAC music curator Amadeus Julian Regucera.

Kronos Quartet

San Francisco, CA

Kronos Performing Arts Association will commission a new work for Kronos Quartet from composer Trey Spruance as part of the KRONOS Five Decades Project.

Mantra Percussion Inc.

Woodside, NY

This timely opera, composed by Annie Gosfield and directed by Ashley Tata, interprets the visionary ideology and enduring legacy of Emma Goldman — one of the most influential political activists in US history. In a driving, dramatic setting for vocalist and percussion ensemble, EMMA! evokes the power of community and the anarchic clatter of her times.

Original Music Workshop d.b.a. National Sawdust

Brooklyn, NY

Living In the “In-Between” is a song cycle exploring what it means to live "in-between" ethnicities and cultures. It highlights the Asian American experiences as seen through the eyes of two Chinese American women artists - composer Vivian Fung and soprano Andrea Núñez with a libretto by Royce Vavrek.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

New York, NY

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a radical experiment in musical democracy, proving for fifty years what happens when exceptional artists gather with total trust in each other and faith in the creative process.

Palaver Strings

Portland, ME

Noisefloor is a unique collaboration between the musician-led ensemble, Palaver Strings and the contemporary dance collective, little house dance. In this interdisciplinary performance, twelve musicians and seven dancers join forces, premiering a new composition by Courtney Swain written specifically for choreography by Heather Stewart.

Pittsburgh Opera

Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh Opera, partnering with Opera Santa Barbara, presents the powerful world premiere of Antigone (working title) by composer Laura Kaminsky, librettist Crystal Manich, and dramaturg/stage director Amy Hutchison, which explores an issue of gun violence at schools through the eyes of high school students preparing to stage a performance of Sophocles’ Antigone.

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble

Portland, OR

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble commissions, performs, and releases new music created by Portland and Oregon-resident professional and student composers.

PRISM Quartet, Inc.

Philadelphia, PA

PRISM Quartet seeks to place the saxophone in unexpected contexts, chart fresh musical territory, and to challenge, inspire, and move audiences with music from a diverse range of creators; PRISM will use funds to advance contemporary composers’ work through its concert series and label XAS Records, and provide educational + mentorship programs to aspiring artists from diverse backgrounds.

Silkroad

Brighton, MA

Funding will support the development of new music from Cecile McLorin Salvant and Suzanne Kite for American Railroad, Silkroad’s large-scale artistic initiative developed by Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens that explores the cultures and communities behind the creation of the railroads in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The West Kortright Centre

East Meredith, NY

Guided by both who is remembered and who is left out in a written history of a small rural NY village, artists Delaney Martin and Taylor Shepherd have conceived a site-specific performance that combines found sounds, rolling hills, converging roads, and singing traditions to celebrate and interrogate American identity.

VisionIntoArt

Brooklyn, NY

SENSORIUM is a multi-modal arts project exploring fundamental questions of what it means to have voice. The project is centered around the opera, Sensorium Ex – a multi-sensory narrative woven together at the intersections of disability and artificial intelligence.

Works & Process

New York, NY

Works & Process commissions performance piece “The Beatbox House,” following five beatboxers–world champions Amit Bhowmick, Chris Celiz, Neil “NaPoM” Meadows, Gene Shinozaki, and Kenny Urban, who unfold how their virtuosic, imagination-defying music, made by human mouths/bodies, encompasses the innovations, craft and expressions of generations of beatbox creators.

Beth Morrison Projects

Brooklyn, NY

HILDEGARD is a work about Saint Hildegard von Bingen (1098 - 1179), the first opera by composer/librettist Sarah Kirkland Snider.

Harlem Stage

New York, NY

Composer, singer-songwriter, and performing and recording artist Tamar-kali will create a dramatic work-in-development — Black Damask — about the life and times of the first documented drag queen William Dorsey Swann, in collaboration with Harlem Stage.

2023 Organization Fund Awardees - General Support

American Composers Orchestra

New York, NY

American Composers Orchestra supports new music through commissions, premieres, and EarShot composer advancement initiatives. ACO exists to expand the definition of American orchestral music to ensure an inclusive and vibrant future.

ANIKAYA

New York, NY

ANIKAYA will use our New Music Organizational grant to support tour development for The Women Gather, a live music work made in collaboration with ANIKAYA artistic director Wendy Jehlen, composer Shaw Pong Liu and vocalist/creative artists Mali Shastri, Sutikshna Veeravali and Sam Whyte, along with an ensemble of dancers, along with touring for Conference of the Birds.

Ars Nova Workshop

Philadelphia, PA

Ars Nova Workshop is Philadelphia's premiere presenter of avant garde jazz and new music, as well as a host of interdisciplinary programs that explore why jazz matters.

Audium Theater

San Francisco, CA

Funding from New Music USA will help expand Audium’s artist residency and featured artist programs, which commission local Bay Area artists to create original works of spatial sound and new media.

Bang on a Can

Brooklyn, NY

Bang on a Can is dedicated to making music new. Since its first Marathon concert in 1987, Bang on a Can has been creating an international community dedicated to innovative music, wherever it is found.

Brooklyn Raga Massive

Brooklyn, NY

Brooklyn Raga Massive is an adventurous nonprofit musicians' collective that creates cross-cultural understanding through the lens of South Asian classical music by providing support to artists, fostering collaboration through our iconic concerts and jam sessions, facilitating cultural exchange through educational initiatives, and producing transcendent, and often massive, performances, festivals, and one-of-a-kind albums.

CapitalBop

Washington, D.C.

CapitalBop’s grassroots shows and festivals are known for their invigorating, cutting-edge artistry, energy, and fresh approaches to bringing audiences together. We build audiences and community around jazz, creative music and Black culture, recognizing each as a crucial part of D.C.’s contemporary and historic identities. CapitalBop documents the city’s vibrant jazz scene through its unique e-magazine and media platforms.

Chicxs Rockerxs South East Los Angeles

Bell Gardens, CA

Chicxs Rockerxs South East Los Angeles (CRSELA) amplifies the voices of trans and gender expansive youth, girls, and artists from communities of color through music, mentorship and social justice to empower themselves and their communities.

Composers Now

New York, NY

Composers Now empowers all living composers, celebrates the diversity of their voices and honors the significance of their artistic contributions to the cultural fabric of society. It advocates for living composers through commissioning, mentoring and professional development initiatives, creative residencies, marketing, promotion, and forums for the expansion of composers' networks.

Copland House

Peekskill, NY

New Music USA is supporting one of Copland House’s flagship initiatives, its annual CULTIVATE emerging composers institute – an intensive, weeklong creative workshop and mentoring programs.

Creative Music Studio

Woodstock, NY

Creative Music Studio (AKA Creative Music Foundation, Inc.) will build community through new partnerships, presentations, and mentorship to young artists, particularly BIPOC, female, trans and genderqueer musicians/composers.

DC Jazz Festival

Washington, D.C.

New Music USA funding will help JazzDC at the Mead Center activities, including our Generations series, curated by Artist-in-Residence Orrin Evans, pairs jazz elders with emerging artists, along with an emerging artist program focused on new compositions. Funding will support a new weekly jazz club series at the Mead Center that will showcase regional talent and provide space for artists to rehearse new works.

D-Composed

Chicago, IL

D-Composed is a Black chamber music collective that celebrates Black culture and creativity through the music of Black composers.

Earshot Jazz Society of Seattle

Seattle, WA

Since 1984 Earshot Jazz has presented thousands of one-of-a-kind concerts while balancing a variety of forward-thinking services to the community. It is distinctive for its long-view approach to nurturing the art form, support of its own community, and presenting creative artists from around the world.

Either/Or Ensemble

New York, NY

Either/Or’s 2023-24 season features two major programming directions: expansive presentations featuring legacy African-American composers Leroy Jenkins and Talib Rasul Hakim and events featuring new and recent work developed in close collaboration with its creators including Diné/Navajo Nation composer Raven Chacon.

Elastic Arts Foundation

Chicago, IL

Elastic Arts is an organization that creates space for all artists to create, but especially those who are not welcome elsewhere because their work is experimental, unorthodox, nontraditional, out of bounds, or reflective of racial, ethnic, sexual, or political identities that are unwelcome in (or threatening to) dominant cultural institutions.

Experiments in Opera

Brooklyn, NY

Experiments in Opera's 2023-2024 season will include new works in development with librettists, composers and designers looking to expand the boundaries of opera.

HEAL Center for the Arts

Saint Louis, MO

HEAL Center for the Arts is committed to making quality arts programming accessible to all students, especially to those of urban communities.

Hub New Music

Ann Arbor, MI

Called "contemporary chamber trailblazers" by the Boston Globe, Hub New Music is a quartet of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello forging new ground in 21st century repertoire.

Imani Winds Foundation

New York, NY

Imani Winds and Andy Akiho will collaborate to co-produce and record Andy Akiho’s BeLoud, BeLoved, BeLonging (2022), a 40-minute five-movement work for woodwind quintet and optional percussion commissioned by Imani Winds.

InfraSound

Brooklyn, NY

NYC-based InfraSound is redesigning the way experimental music is being heard and experienced through creative and thoughtful concert curation, commissions, and presentations of contemporary Western/European music.

International Contemporary Ensemble

Brooklyn, NY

New Music USA supports the Ensemble's general operations in 2023-24, contributing to our ability to mount over 70 programs of adventurous music.

Inversion Ensemble

Austin, TX

Inversion is dedicated to bringing to life new choral works by living composers; we continuously commission brand-new music, perform exclusively in venues that feel like safe spaces for diverse audiences, and work to mentor the next generation of singers and composers.

ISSUE Project Room

New York, NY

ISSUE presents projects by interdisciplinary artists that expand the boundaries of artistic practice and stimulate critical dialogue in the broader community. A leading incubator in NYC’s cultural ecology, ISSUE facilitates work that eludes audience expectations and is otherwise underrepresented within the field.

Luna Composition Lab

New York, NY

Funding from New Music USA will enable Luna Composition Lab to continue to provide mentorship and resources for young female, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming composers in their 2023–24 season.

Motor City Sings

Detroit, MI

Motor City Sings uses musical performance and musical production to remove stigma from suicide prevention and mental health programs for audiences in Detroit, MI.

Music Kitchen – Food for the Soul

New York, NY

Music Kitchen - Food for the Soul, founded by violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins as the pioneer organization to bring classical music to homeless shelters, and described by the New York Times, “Just Three blocks from Lincoln Center…The concerts have an air of authenticity and directness that sometimes does not exist in concert halls,” commissioned Forgotten Voices by 15 award-winning composers.

Musiqa

Houston. TX

Musiqa is a non-profit organization dedicated to the performance of contemporary chamber music. Over two decades, Musiqa has performed the works of nearly 300 living composers, including over seventy world premieres, commissioned new works by established and emerging composers, collaborated with hundreds of artists, and provided educational programs for tens of thousands of young people.

M³ – Mutual Mentorship for Musicians

Woodside, NY

M³ (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians) is a platform created to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to women, non-binary musicians and those of other historically underrepresented gender identities in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions.

New Music Gathering

Brooklyn, NY

New Music Gathering is a biennial conference/festival hybrid dedicated to the performance, production, promotion, support, and creation of new and forward-thinking music. NMG works with a different host city each year, and seeks to present work from across the country (and beyond!) alongside the work being made there locally.

Next Edge Arts, Inc.

Raleigh, NC

The Next Festival supports early-career performers and composers via a two-week series of workshops, rehearsals, mentoring and performances. Collaborating with world class guest artists, Next Festival Fellows perform a program of 21st century music and engage with the community to advance the future of contemporary classical music.

NYC Winter Jazzfest

Brooklyn, NY

Since its founding in 2005, Winter Jazzfest has cemented its reputation as a hotbed of cultural discovery, presenting new and exciting sounds and scenes each January throughout New York.

Peninsula Women’s Chorus

Palo Alto, CA

The Peninsula Women’s Chorus is excited to present new music from our Composer-in-Residence program during the spring of 2024, featuring composer Theresa Wong, with support from New Music USA.

Project [BLANK]

San Diego, CA

Project [BLANK] is a San Diego-based concert series and presenting organization that produces immersive, multi-disciplinary performances of chamber music and opera.

Qubit

Brooklyn, NY

Qubit's 14th annual season in New York will see the continuation of our Innovator Lab artist-in-residence series, as well as curated productions throughout the year.

Ravinia Festival

Highland Park, IL

Ravinia is an internationally renowned, not-for-profit music festival, that presents outstanding performances by the world’s greatest artists. Ravinia's Breaking Barriers Festival celebrates women composers—classical and jazz artists as well as singer-songwriters.

Roulette Intermedium

Brooklyn, NY

Founded in 1978 as a laboratory and performance space where creative trailblazers and curious thinkers could share perspectives on current conversations, Roulette now presents 120+ performances of experimental music, movement, and media each year and hosts an additional 150+ community and rental events in its 12,000-sq-ft state-of-the-art theater in Downtown Brooklyn.

Sound Off: Music For Bail

New York, NY

Sound Off: Music for Bail is a dynamic collective of musicians, activists, and thinkers dedicated to raising money for abolitionist organizations and bail funds across the country, rethinking notions of public safety as they relate to real-life communities, and playing great music.

Sparks & Wiry Cries

Lansing, NY

Sparks & Wiry Cries curates opportunities for art song creators, performers, and scholars through innovative initiatives that capture the stories of our diverse communities.

The Crossing

Philadelphia, PA

The Crossing is a professional chamber choir conducted by Donald Nally and dedicated to new music. It is committed to working with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir that explore and expand ways of writing, singing in, and listening to music for choir.

The Jazz Gallery

New York, NY

For over 27 years, The Jazz Gallery has been an integral part of the cultural life of New York City. Founded in 1995 by trumpeter Roy Hargrove, vocalist Lezlie Harrison, and cultural anthropologist Dale Fitzgerald, TJG has been hailed as "the most imaginatively booked jazz club in New York." (NYTimes)

The Lab

San Francisco, CA

The Lab is a catalyst for artistic innovation, presenting over 60 performances with experimental American composers annually, while providing significant funding, time, and space to traditionally underrepresented musicians and artists.

The Merian Ensemble

Atlanta, GA

The Merian Ensemble will use this grant to expand online presence and establish a website, publicize our 2023-2024 season and create a publicity template for future seasons, and streamline communication with supporters through regular newsletters.

Trilogy an Opera Company

Newark, NJ

We focus on the works of black composers and subject matter relative to the black experience, bringing this new music forward and adding it to the American operatic catalog. We are expanding the Cannon of American operatic works and highlighting black composers as never done before.

Trinosophes Projects

Detroit, MI

Trinosophes Projects exists to curate, create and produce musical, artistic and literary works, performances, exhibitions and events in order to promote culture and the arts in Detroit Michigan.

Unison Arts

New Paltz, NY

Unison Arts offers opportunities to grow our creative community through innovative environmental, racial, and social justice-centered art practices, as well as exceptional exhibits and performances.

Verdigris Ensemble

District 14, TX

Verdigris Ensemble reshapes choral traditions, fusing diverse genres, innovative collaborations, and technology to craft immersive narratives that redefine the concert experience.

Wild Up

Los Angeles, CA

Wild Up is a contemporary music ensemble. We are committed to creating visceral, thought-provoking concerts and happenings.

Funders

New Music USA’s Organization Fund is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; and with support from the Howard Gilman Foundation, Fifth House Ensemble, and The Cheswatyr Foundation. 

Support for the Organization Fund and Live Music for Dance are also provided by contributions from the New Music USA endowment, and support for New Music USA and its many programs and activities is provided by foundations, corporations, government agencies, and hundreds of individual contributors. New Music USA is grateful for the support of its endowment donors, including Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, Fidelity Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Hewlett Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and  and Helen F. Whitaker Fund.

 

 

Funding Transparency

Both the New Music Creator Fund and the New Music Organization Fund are made possible by the generous funders who either donated to our endowment or generously donate to New Music USA annually. Some of these funders had or have specific requests regarding the kinds of work we support because of their geographical location or particular genre areas, which includes around 50% of our funds going to New York-based artists or organizations. Please find more detailed breakdown info in our FAQs.

2022 Organizational Development Fund Awardees

ABREPASO flamenco

Rocky River, OH

ABREPASO flamenco is a Cleveland-based nonprofit music and dance company directed by Alice Blumenfeld that aims to deepen appreciation for flamenco and create original flamenco choreography and music, finding new entry points into and new pathways within the art form; funds will help expand repertory and offerings of flamenco in Northeast Ohio.

Akropolis Reed Quintet

Northville, MI

As the first reed quintet to grace the Billboard Charts (May 2021), the untamed band of 5 reed players and entrepreneurs are united by a shared passion: to make music that sparks joy and wonder; funds will support its 22-23 season of world premieres, its 5th album release featuring Shara Nova and the music of Nico Muhly, its annual high school residency and new music festival in Detroit, and more than 100 total workshops and performances nationwide.

Alarm Will Sound

Brooklyn, NY

Alarm Will Sound commissions, performs and records new music for large ensemble with the aim of moving contemporary music towards the center of today’s culture; funds will support Artist Fees for musicians, guest artists, and commissioned composers.

Alphabet Rockers

Oakland, CA

Alphabet Rockers make music that makes change, working in partnership with communities to create media reflecting the culture of belonging needed in the world; funds will be used to curate and stage live productions of “The Movement,” featuring songs for all ages about justice, belonging and community care.

American Lyric Theater

New York, NY

American Lyric Theater (ALT) was founded in 2005 to fill a void in the training of operatic writers; funds will be used to support the commission of three new operas from Resident Artists in the company’s Composer Librettist Development Program, which provides invaluable support to mentor gifted emerging opera composers and librettists, with a focus on artists from historically underrepresented groups in opera.

Americas Society, Inc.

New York, NY

Since 1965, Americas Society has been one of the main stages in New York City for music and artists from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada; funds will support the payment of rehearsals and performing fees for new music ensembles performing works by composers from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada during the 2022-2023 season of the Music of the Americas Concert Series.

andPlay

New York, NY

andPlay is committed to expanding the existing violin/viola duo repertoire by commissioning new works and actively collaborating with living artists; funds will support andPlay’s administrative and organizational capacity for its 22-23 season.

Angel City Arts

Los Angeles, CA

Angel City Arts is committed to cultivating and revitalizing jazz culture in LA; funding will go towards the 2022 Angel City Jazz Festival, a vehicle to present the best contemporary West Coast jazz and beyond.

Arts for Art

New York, NY

Arts For Art (AFA) is a NYC-based organization dedicated to the promotion and advancement of FreeJazz -- an African American indigenous art form in which improvisation is principle; funding will help cover artist/production fees and administrative costs in implementing the Community Development Program, the goal of which is to cultivate a wider and more diverse following for improvised art forms, and to ensure the continued long-term stability of the organization.

Arx Music Association

Seattle, WA

arx duo is dedicated to the expansion of the percussion chamber music repertoire through the creation and presentation of new works, engaging with young artists and audiences, and bringing communities together through music; funds will complete the costs of recording our album with new commissions from Juri Seo and Robert Honstein, as well as cover part of our cost of the new commission of Steven Mackey's "Memoir"

Audium Theater

San Francisco, CA

Audium- the first theater of its kind in the world- has been pioneering the idea of live sound movement for over 50 years; this grant will help expand Audium’s artist residency and featured artist programs, which commission local Bay Area artists to create original works of spatial sound and new media.

Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Theater

Deal Park, NJ

"AXCBT is rooted in a deep commitment to ballet and contemporary dance and cultivates an environment rooted in diversity, inspiration, encouragement, and equality; funds will be used for “The lost Princess of Oz,” a new Literary Ballet music score written by composer Chris Becker. "

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center

Asheville, NC

Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) celebrates and extends the legacy of Black Mountain College (BMC). Funding will support the BMCM+AC Performance Initiative, which brings innovative contemporary musicians and performing artists to Western North Carolina and supports the work of artists working in BMC’s avant-garde lineage.

BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance

New York, NY

Teresa Fellion founded BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance in late 2011, after working as an independent choreographer since 2004; funds will be used to compensate and credit collaborators in a just manner and provide opportunities to new and upcoming musicians and composers.

Boise Phil

Boise, ID

The Boise Phil is a classical orchestra based in Boise, Idaho that presents a broad array of music from historical works to commissioned pieces by living composers; funds will go towards sponsoring the performances of three co-commissioned works by Jennifer Higdon, Jimmy López Bellido, and Vijay Iyer during Boise Phil's 2022-2023 season.

Boulanger Initiative

Takoma Park, MD

Boulanger Initiative advocates for women and all gender-marginalized composers; funds will continue efforts towards increasing gender equity in the music industry through our programs.

Bowdoin International Music Festival

Brunswick, ME

The Bowdoin International Music Festival is approaching its 60th anniversary as a world-renowned chamber music performance and training program; funding will help sustain and strengthen our annual Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music, as well as move us closer towards our goal of fully-funding tuition for all composition students.

Bowerbird

Philadelphia, PA

Bowerbird is a Philadelphia based non-profit organization that shares music, dance, film, and related art forms with audiences at locations across the region; funds will allow Bowerbird to produce concerts of new and experimental music in venues across Philadelphia.

Brightwork newmusic

Los Angeles, CA

Brightwork newmusic is the only organization in Southern California with a performing ensemble, monthly concert series, and educational initiatives all focused through the lens of contemporary classical music; funds will help sustain general operating at a critical stage in their organizational growth.

Brooklyn Raga Massive

Brooklyn, NY

"Brooklyn Raga Massive (BRM) is an adventurous artist collective dedicated to preserving and expanding the rich genre of South Asian classical music by providing direct support to musicians, and facilitating cultural exchange through performances, new compositions, and educational programs."

Castle of our Skins

Boston, MA

Castle of our Skins is a Black arts institution dedicated to fostering cultural curiosity and celebrating Black artistry through music; funds will support its annual Black Composer Miniature Challenge project and Shirley Graham DuBois Creative in Residence program, both of which support African diasporic creatives from around the world through the realization and documentation of new work.

Chamber Dance Project

Washington D.C.

Chamber Dance Project, dancers & musicians (CDP,) mission is to create extraordinary experiences in contemporary ballet on stage with live music and in film; funds will support our artists – dancers and musicians for live performances and events.

chatterbird

Nashville, TN

Chatterbird creates uniquely orchestrated chamber music that explores alternative instrumentation, stylistic diversity, interdisciplinary collaboration, and celebrates friendly, accessible concert settings; funding will support the artistic season, including three large concerts featuring newly commissioned music, educational engagement and partnerships, composer residences, and community-focused experiences.

Classical Music Indy

Indianapolis, IN

Classical Music Indy (CMI) is Central Indiana's premier syndicator of Peabody-award-winning classical music radio programs, producer of 24/7 classical music streaming and award-winning podcasts, community programs provider, and advocate for classical music and classical music-makers; funds will be used to create studio recordings of five new chamber works for mixed ensembles by Indiana-based composers.

Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts (CAAPA)

Fort Washington, MD

Uniquely positioned in the world of classical music and opera, the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts (CAAPA)’s mission is dedicated in “Bringing Color to the Classics”™ in support of Black classical musicians, youth, senior citizens, opera singers, and others in the performing arts.

Copland House

Peekskill, NY

Copland House is dedicated to nurturing and renewing America’s vibrant, diverse musical legacy, and to fostering greater public awareness and appreciation of our nation’s composers and their work.

Creative Music Studio

Woodstock, NY

"Ornette Coleman, Karl Berger, and Ingrid Sertso formed the Creative Music Foundation in 1971; CMS will use its award to advance its new education and professional development programs for music creators, particularly BIPOC, female, trans, and genderqueer artists; and promote and present more new up-and-coming artists who have historically been underrepresented in the music field. "

Crosstown Arts

Memphis, TN

Crosstown Arts is a multidisciplinary contemporary arts center located in Memphis, TN; funding will support the ongoing collaboration between Memphis-based Blueshift Ensemble and Iceberg New Music as well as growing its new music programming in its 2022-2023 season.

Dance and Music Festival

Washington D.C.

The Dance & Music Festival (DMF) is a family friendly festival that aims give our youth and families hope for their future and encourage mentorship, positive self-images, and role models; funding will develop communities and strengthen neighbors by hosting free family friendly events showcasing dance, music, and visual arts.

El Paso Jazz Girls

El Paso, TX

El Paso Jazz Girls is a cost-free program for young female musicians to learn about jazz, meet each other, play together, and create a support system; support will help fund El Paso Jazz Girls' annual cost-free summer program, teacher development workshops for the Texas community, and local performance opportunities for our participants.

Ensemble Pi

New York, NY

Ensemble Pi is a socially conscious new music collective committed to performing works by living American composers, as well as underrepresented composers of the past; funds will support new projects exploring personal devastation brought on by war.

Experimental Sound Studio

Chicago, IL

Experimental Sound Studio (ESS) is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization dedicated to artistic evolution and the creative exploration of sound; funds will support staff capacity, new voices in leadership, and the build-out of expanded resource accessibility as ESS works to evolve and mature the momentum, lessons, and connections forged over the past two years of programming amidst a constantly changing landscape.

Girls Rock! Des Moines

Des Moines, IA

Since 2013, Girls Rock! Des Moines has been empowering cis-girls, gender-expansive, nonbinary, and trans youth through music education, collaboration, and performance opportunities; funds will help GRDSM hire new staff members.

Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival  

Southfield, MI

The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival was born in 1994 of a remarkable relationship between religious and cultural institutions; funds support collaboration with regional and national organizations to commission new works by underrepresented composers, and share them with the larger Metro Detroit community.

Guerilla Opera

Haverhill, MA

In daring performances, Guerilla Opera has garnered a national reputation for innovative contemporary opera with The Boston Globe raving that “radical exploration remains the cornerstone of everything it does”; funds will aid in supporting our Guerilla Opera Staff, allowing them to root more in the art we are creating and focus on supporting our artists and creators during their process.

Harvestworks

New York, NY

Founded in 1977 by experimental composers and sound artists, Harvestworks’ mission is to support contemporary artists in the creation of art works achieved through the use of new and evolving technologies; funds will support inviting more composers from the BIPOC and LGBTQ communities to their residency program.

Hypercube Ensemble

Astoria, NY

NYC-based quartet Hypercube specializes in cutting-edge works for saxophone, guitar, piano and percussion, while spanning electric and acoustic worlds; funds will support scholarships for its Cubelab programs, with special attention to BIPOC composers, LGBTQIA+, woman-identifying and low-income/need-based participants.

Impulse New Music Festival

Los Angeles, CA

Impulse New Music Festival provides talented early-career musicians with critical tools, training, and mentorship for building a career in new music; this support will help advance the work done with music creators in our summer festival and workshops.

Institute for Composer Diversity

Fredonia, NY

The ICD is housed at the State University of New York at Fredonia, and dedicated to the celebration, education, and advocacy of music created by composers from historically underrepresented groups through database resources and programming analysis; support will be used to expand the ICD databases and resources, as well as supporting the ICD Database Expansion and Community Impact Initiative.

International Contemporary Ensemble

New York, NY

ICE has become a leading force in new music throughout the last 20 years; funding will support work with eight composers who have been selected for new commissions through ICE’s “Call For ___” in-house commissioning program.

Intersection

Nashville, TN

Intersection is a Nashville-based contemporary music ensemble dedicated to challenging the traditional concert experience, supporting living composers, engaging youth in new music, promoting collaboration, technology, and the avant-garde, while embracing the musical and cultural diversity of Nashville; funds will support a return to live performances and enable Intersection to increase staff capacity. 

JACK Quartet

New York, NY

One of the most acclaimed, renowned, and respected groups performing today, JACK Quartet has maintained an unwavering commitment to their mission of performing and commissioning new works, giving voice to underheard composers, and cultivating an ever-greater sense of openness toward contemporary classical music; funds will support fees for commissioned artists via JACK Studio + JACK Creative Fund.

Jazz Power Initiative (d/b/a of The Jazz Drama Program)

New York, NY

Founded by jazz musician/educator Eli Yamin and teacher/writer Clifford Carlson, after identifying the need for youth-friendly jazz education programs in Uptown Manhattan, specifically vocal jazz, JPI’s music education and performance programs place jazz at the center of American culture and history; the grant will support operating support and new organizational development for Jazz Power Initiative.

Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project

New York, NY

Founded by choreographer Jeremy McQueen in 2016, The Black Iris Project (BIP) is a ballet collaborative and education vehicle which creates relevant classical and contemporary ballet works that celebrate diversity and Black history; funds will help choreographer Jeremy McQueen and composer Brian Nabors develop a new ballet entitled “Blood in the Soil”, examining the often complex intersectionality of Black Americans.

Juventas New Music Ensemble

Boston, MA

Juventas New Music Ensemble (Oliver Caplan, Artistic Director) is the only contemporary chamber group with a special focus on emerging voices; the grant will support Juventas's 2022-23 Season "Stories of Our Time," a musical journey, exploring some of today’s most critical social issues through the voices of emerging composers.

Khemia Ensemble

Khemia Ensemble is dedicated to reflecting broader perspectives in contemporary classical chamber music by presenting engaging performances, commissioning new works, and mentoring the next generation of musicians; funding will support 2022-23 season projects.

Kronos Quartet

San Francisco, CA

Funding will help Kronos, which approaches its 50th anniversary in 2023-24, continue to pursue creative collaborations and projects that foster connections between musical traditions and artistic genres, engage audiences and artists in new ways, and amplify the voices and concerns of marginalized or underrepresented communities.

Lampo

Chicago, IL

Lampo supports artists working in new music, experimental sound, and other interdisciplinary practices; this award will provide vital assistance to commission and produce more ambitious and complex new work.

LayeRhythm Productions, Inc.

New York, NY

LPI aims to highlight freestyle dance and music voices under-recognized in the traditional performing arts landscape and to transform individuals’ relationship to music/dance while providing entertainment, building community, educating audiences in cultural history, and supporting emotional and social well-being; funds will support musicians’ engagement in LayeRhythm club and theater events.

Leela Institute

West Hills, CA

Leela Institute, based in both SF and LA, was founded by senior disciples of legendary kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das, and is the only one of its kind Indian-American dance company; funds will support the development of our next original work and provide more platforms for our artistic output, and allow us to collaborate more deeply with composers and musicians who share our values, and whose work inspires us.

Life/Art Dance Ensemble

Denver, CO

Life/Art Dance Ensemble is a Colorado-based modern dance company, support will allow Life/Art to commission works from emerging local artists, adequately compensate them, and provide a platform for their work to be experienced.

Live the Spirit Residency

Chicago, IL

Live the Spirit Residency and its Englewood Jazz Festival are cultural anchors in Chicago's Englewood community, deeply rooted in and reflective of the rich artistic heritage of Black creative music in Chicago; funds will be put towards the 23rd annual Englewood Jazz Festival from September 14–17, 2022 and offers concerts, free all-ages jazz workshops, and a series of panel discussions.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

Los Angeles, CA

The mission of LACO is to enrich and connect our community through intimate and transformative musical experiences that exemplify and foster artistic excellence, education and innovation.

Luna Composition Lab (Partnership Grantee)

New York, NY

Luna Composition Lab provides mentorship and performance opportunities to young composers who are female, non-binary or gender nonconforming. Funded by a New Music USA Partnership Grant.

Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble

New York, NY

The Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble is an interdisciplinary performing ensemble of contemporary dance and music; funds will support our 2022-2023 Season of live performances and enable the creation and premiere of a new dance & music work entitled "The Faces Of Sun And Wind,” which will explore our ability to connect, both literally and poetically, to sources of renewable energy, like sun and wind.

Mivos Quartet

Brooklyn, NY

Mivos Quartet is dedicated to advancing and performing new music in all its variety to diverse audiences worldwide; these funds will help commission and premiere diverse new music for string quartet, fund composition awards for emerging composers, and fund recordings of recent new works.

MIXTAPE

Saint Paul, MN

MIXTAPE is an artistic organization focused on dance theater and the professionalization without gatekeeping resources of the Twin Cities Hip Hop dance community; this grant will go toward paying artists a fair wage for their labor so that they can create work around social justice issues such as racial inequity, sexual violence, and climate change.

Music From The Sole

New York, NY

Music From The Sole is a tap dance and live music company that celebrates tap's Afro-diasporic roots, particularly its connections to Afro-Brazilian dance and music, and its lineage to forms like house dance and passinho (Brazilian funk); funds will strengthen focus as music creators, including preparing for recordings of recent works, and marketing ourselves to presenters who might not normally book a hybrid dance company/ band.

Musiqa

Houston, TX

Musiqa is a non-profit organization dedicated to the performance of contemporary chamber music; funding from will help the organization fulfill a commitment to the creation of new work and support for composers at every stage in their careers and providing an essential platform for diverse voices from around the nation.

M³ – Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (Partnership Grantee)

New York, NY

M³ was created to empower and elevate musicians of historically underrepresented gender identities in the US and worldwide through a new model of mentorship and an ongoing performance series of new collaborative commissions. With the aim of building new paradigms of mentorship, M³ celebrates a wide network of artists, providing a think tank for new ways to connect, collaborate, support and create.

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Inc.

New York, NY

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a rare Asian American woman led professional touring company with programs for educational settings, community organizations and mainstage venues; funds will be used to enhance the organization's capacity to coordinate among our music collaborators throughout the creative process.

Nameless Sound

Houston, TX

Nameless Sound presents international, national, and local artists in the fields of experimental music, sound art, improvisation, and jazz; funds will go towards two concert series, the Creative Music Concert Series and the weekly They, Who Sound series, as well as guests artist engagements with youth in our Creative Music Communities program.

New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble

Albuquerque, NM

The New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble (NMCE) is an artistic collective that works to connect regional and international artists with New Mexico communities; funds will support their James Tenney Memorial Symposium and a new virtual collaboration.

New York Kathak Festival

Flushing, NY

The New York Kathak Festival is a nonprofit organization that presents and promotes dancers, scholars, and practitioners of Kathak, a classical dance tracing its origins to India; funds will support the creation of an original Indian classical score to be used across all programming, as well as support performances by Indian classical musicians at our upcoming concerts.

NewEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble

Kansas City, MO

newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble dedicates itself to commissioning and performing music of our time and providing listeners with unique and stimulating musical experiences that are rooted in artistic excellence and enhanced by educational opportunities.

nienteForte Contemporary Music

New Orleans, LA

nienteForte is a presenting series whose mission is to champion contemporary music in New Orleans by hosting residencies featuring world renowned new music ensembles, artists, and composers from around the globe; funds will contribute greatly to upcoming residencies.

Nimbus Arts Center / Nimbus Dance

Jersey City, NJ

Nimbus Arts Center bridges the gap between world-class performance and community engagement by presenting work that speaks to and elevates diverse audiences and producing annual new dance premieres that challenge audiences to reflect on today’s most pressing societal issues; funds will go towards the 22-23 season.

Omaha Under the Radar

Omaha, NE

Omaha Under the Radar emerged from a desire to support innovative performers, arts educators, and creators living and working in Nebraska and throughout the Midwest, and to connect this community to audiences and artists throughout the US; funds will be used to support the 2022-23 Generator Series held at KANEKO, to increase staff support, and to increase the frequency of our SOUNDRY workshops.

Opera on Tap

Brooklyn, NY

Opera On Tap was created to promote opera as a viable, living and progressive art form and to support the developing artists who continue to keep the art form alive. Support from New Music USA will support Opera On Tap’s development activities in relation to our new music projects, including the Immersive Opera Project and New Brew.

Orchestra 2001

Philadelphia, PA

Currently in its fourth decade, Orchestra 2001 has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Phoenix’s Musical Instrument Museum, and more; funds will support artistic, production, and administrative expenses for three of Orchestra 2001’s signature series: EMERGING MARKETS, presenting concerts in local markets where Philadelphians work and shop; ¡CONEXIONES!, highlighting music by Latin American composers; and JOURNEYS: Classical Music from the African Diaspora.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

New York, NY

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a radical experiment in musical democracy, proving for fifty years what happens when exceptional artists gather with total trust in each other and faith in the creative process; funds will support concerts at Carnegie Hall, a national tour, the presentation of new music and expansion of repertoire for chamber orchestras through newly imagined arrangements.

Pathos Trio

Brooklyn, NY

Pathos Trio is a two percussion and piano trio committed to combining aesthetics of contemporary classical music with their interests in dark, heavy, dense sounds drawn from various genres of music, while also aiming to bring adventurous music to audiences through collaborations with young, living new music composers; funds will go toward general operating costs.

PDC Works

Houston, TX

Through collaboration with local artists, PDC Works creates and presents multidisciplinary performances that entertain, intrigue, educate and inspire learning; support will be used to fund the performances of local musicians and dancers in "Take Root.”

Periapsis Music and Dance

Brooklyn, NY

Periapsis Music and Dance is a Brooklyn-based organization dedicated to cultivating a new collaborative repertoire between choreographers and composers; funding will support our administrative structure, which in turn will allow us to expand our programming and our artistic ambitions, offering more frequent performances and more opportunities for artists, and leading to a larger overall scale of activity.

Piano Spheres

Piano Spheres

Piano Spheres supports and encourages the composition, performance, and video production of major new works for the piano as well as rarely heard treasures from centuries past; funds will support the Leonard Stein Artist Residency for Historically Underrepresented Groups with resident artist Dr. William Chapman Nyaho.

PRISM Quartet, Inc.

Philadelphia, PA

PRISM Quartet seeks to place the saxophone in unexpected contexts, chart fresh musical territory, and to challenge, inspire, and move audiences with music from a diverse range of creators; PRISM will use funds to advance contemporary composers’ work through its concert series and label XAS Records, and provide educational + mentorship programs to aspiring artists from diverse backgrounds.

San Francisco Girls Chorus

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco Girls Chorus prepares girls and young women from diverse backgrounds for success, on stage and in life, through rigorous, empowering music education, and enriches Bay Area cultural life through innovative vocal performance; funding will support SFGC’s year-round music education programs for girls, young women, and gender-expansive youth, and commissions and performances of new music in the 2022-2023 concert season.

San José Chamber Orchestra

San José, CA

SJCO is a twenty-member professional string orchestra that champions living composers with a wide spectrum of ethnic and/or stylistic backgrounds; funds will support performance of new works during the 2022-23 season.

Sandbox Percussion

New York, NY

This funding will help Sandbox to prioritize the time we spend creating and exploring with our collaborators. Through initiatives like our Creator Mentorship Program, we are able to set aside time and resources for workshops with creators, documentation of the works we’ve created, and public presentations of this music for our community of listeners.

ShaLeigh Dance Works

Durham, NC

ShaLeigh Dance Works (SDW) is a nonprofit, dance-theatre company dedicated to inspiring people of all abilities, social backgrounds, cultures, and generations with the transformative power of dance; funds will support the 2023 new music program enVISION: The Next Chapter, which researches the perception of music and sound in the absence of vision and how access informs our creative process.

Sidra Bell Dance New York (SBDNY, Inc)

White Plains, NY

Sidra Bell Dance New York is an internationally recognized boutique brand of prolific movement illustrators based in NYC that presents and fosters a canon of innovative and progressive dance theater in realms of ideas, environs and (im)possibilities; funds will go toward a new creation with composer Dan Cooper for film.

Siudy Garrido Flamenco Company

Miami, FL

With a mission that is to nurture and embrace a contemporary vision of Flamenco art in America, the funds will be utilized on finalizing the mixes of the tracks and the mastering of the whole album.

Skaneateles Festival

Skaneateles, NY

"The Skaneateles Festival is a summer music festival in Upstate New York; funds will support a new project called Freedom Sounds, for which the Festival will invite composers, performing artists, longtime and new listeners to consider a simple question with many answers: What does freedom sound like?"

Sō Percussion Summer Institute

Brooklyn, NY

Formed at the Yale School of Music in 1999 and based in Brooklyn since 2004, Sō Percussion has cultivated a unique repertoire that focused on American music - beginning with John Cage and exploring the rich diversity of today's musical culture; funds will be used to support scholarships and guest artist fees at our 2022 So Percussion Summer Institute.

staibdance, Inc.

Atlanta, GA

staibdance is a contemporary dance company that embraces the development and performance of original work while equally nurturing creative impulses from our cultural community; funding will support a resident, experimental sound artist to create and develop an aural world which will bolster our newest, multi-disciplinary work titled ARARAT.

TAC Temescal Art Center

Oakland, CA

A community art space in Oakland, CA that supports experimental, community, and healing arts practices and provides the Bay Area with a “Room for Belonging” – a sanctuary space where non- binary and non-dominant ideas can flourish; funding will support the 25th season of TACmusic.

Talea Ensemble

New York, NY

Talea Ensemble champions musical creativity, cultivates curious listeners, and brings visionary new works to life with vibrant performances that remain in the audience’s imagination long after a concert; funds will allow Talea to strengthen + build out the Talea Access Project and support creative ways to connect with its community outside of performance, such as the Open Forms podcast + discussion series.

The American Opera Project

Brooklyn, NY

The American Opera Project’s mission is to develop and present new and innovative works of lyric theater, provide a creative home to emerging and established artists, and engage contemporary communities in a transformative operatic experience; support will go towards artist fees for workshops of projects in AOP's opera-incubator, First Chance.

The Dream Unfinished

The Dream Unfinished

The Dream Unfinished is an activist orchestra and its mission is to use classical music as a platform to engage audiences in dialogues surrounding social and racial justice; funding will go directly towards supporting live performances.

The Fuse Factory Electronic and Digital Arts Lab

Columbus, OH

The Fuse Factory is an art and technology initiative that facilitates practical and critical engagement with performance, sound and visual arts, high and low technologies, and new media; funds will go towards compensating the musicians participating in our Frequency Fridays 2022-2023 season, touring artist program, and our artist-in-residence program.

The Industry

Los Angeles, CA

The Industry is an experimental company that expands the operatic form, bringing together interdisciplinary artists to create collaborative performances that authentically engage the cultural landscape of LA; funding will support its ambitious upcoming programming schedule.

The Lab

San Francisco, CA

The Lab gives significant funding, time, and space to traditionally underrepresented musicians and artists, and a site for interdisciplinary artistic production; funding will support performances and partnerships for experimental composers and musicians at The Lab in 2022–23.

The Philadelphia Jazz Tap Ensemble

Philadelphia, PA

The funds will assist in the production and performance of a new site-specific commission, Trouble the Water, which will premiere in August 2022 at the Fairmount Waterworks and then later in Fall 2022 at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

The West Kortright Centre

East Meredith, NY

The West Kortright Centre is dedicated to excellence in the arts, featuring a diverse blend of world-class concerts, workshops, art exhibits, and community events; funds will support concert programming, bringing the very best and innovative American music to rural upstate New York.

Third Coast Percussion

Chicago, IL

Third Coast Percussion is a GRAMMY® Award-winning Chicago-based percussion quartet and GRAMMY®-nominated composer collective; support will strengthen TCP’s Currents Creative Partnership, a collaborative program for innovative music creators who are at the beginning of their careers, have less experience writing for percussion, or are expanding their creative work in new directions.

Traverse City Dance Project

Traverse City, MI

The mission of the Traverse City Dance Project is to produce and present professional dance in Northern Michigan and beyond; funds will be used in support of our NewVo Fellowship program, through which the Traverse City Dance Project commissions and facilitates new collaborative works between choreographers and composers.

Unison Arts

New Paltz, NY

Unison Arts offers opportunities to grow our creative community through innovative environmental, racial, and social justice-centered art practices, as well as exceptional exhibits and performance; funds will build and sustain community in the performing arts across the Hudson Valley.

Wildflower Composers

Philadelphia, PA

Wildflower Composers (formerly the Young Women Composers Camp) aims to amplify the voices of female and gender-expansive composers and work toward a more equitable future for contemporary music; funds will support the expansion of 2022/2023 programming to include an in-person winter retreat for composers between the ages of 18 and 30, as well as virtual courses on specialized topics within composition such as film scoring.

World Arts West

San Francisco, CA

The mission of World Arts West (WAW) is to support local artists sustaining diverse world music and dance traditions by providing needed services and performance opportunities while deepening the public’s support of and engagement with these inspiring culture bearers. 

World Music Institute, Inc.

Brooklyn, NY

WMI is dedicated to presenting the best in traditional as well as contemporary music and dance from around the globe; funding will support engaging artists to create kid-friendly free podcasts of improvised international folk tales underscored with musical interpretations and to pay innovative artists who advance and experiment with “world music” to perform live in NYC, highlighting WMI’s motto: Many Cultures – One World.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre

Brooklyn, NY

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre (YSDT), founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Samar Haddad King in NYC, operates under the belief that art should be liberating, transformative, and accessible to all; funds will support operational expenses for the development of a new production featuring an original soundscore.

Young Dancemakers Company

New York, NY

"YDC is a unique, tuition-free summer dance ensemble of New York City teenagers, dedicated to creating and performing their own original work; funding will support the collaboration between professional composers and YDC’s teen choreographers as they work together on the creation of original music and dance, to be presented in concerts throughout NYC, free and open to the public. "