New Music USA Announces 2024 Organization Fund Grantees

Written By

Kate Dreyfuss

Total of $613,500 awarded to 85 organizations from across the U.S.

New Music USA is proud to announce the 85 awardees for the 2024 New Music Organization Fund, which provides grants to outstanding organizations that work regularly with and support the development of music creators and artists, offering crucial resources to their community. Totaling $613,500 in awards, the program funds organizations working in a variety of genres to help them sustain their programming of new music, nurturing of music creators, and other services.

This year’s awardees have demonstrated a deep and consistent impact on their community, and include music organizations, performance groups, dance organizations, festivals, presenters, and venues that span 17 states. The geographic diversity of the selected organizations reflects New Music USA’s commitment to expanding its national reach through its grant programs.

For this grant cycle, which attracted 702 applications, applicants were asked to select their preferred funding strand from one of the following categories: General Operating Support, Creation of New Work, or Live Music for Dance projects. General Operating Support awardees constitute 61%; Creation of New work awardees, 17%; and Live Music for Dance awardees, 22%.

See the full list of awardees below and on the New Music Organization Fund program page, which also features playlists of music that has been supported by the awardee organizations.

General Operating Support

4 WHEEL CITY – New York, NY
Akropolis Reed Quintet – Northville, MI
American Composers Orchestra – New York, NY
Bodies of Culture – Englewood, CO
Cambridge Community Center / The Hip Hop Transformation – Cambridge, MA
Castle of our Skins – Roxbury, MA
Center for the Arts at Kayenta – Ivins, UT
chatterbird – Nashville, TN
Chicxs Rockerxs South East Los Angeles – Bell Gardens, CA
Composers Now – New York, NY
Copland House, Inc – Peekskill, NY
Ensemble Decipher – Kingston, NY
fivebyfive – Rochester, NY
FREER Records – New York, NY
Golden Hornet Project, Inc – Austin, TX
Guerilla Opera, Inc – Boston, MA
Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center – Buffalo, NY
Harvestworks, Inc – New York, NY
HiiiWAV – Oakland, CA
Hyde Park Jazz Festival – Chicago, IL
International Contemporary Ensemble – Brooklyn, NY
JACK Quartet – New York, New York
LADY GOT CHOPS WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL – East Elmhurst, NY
loadbang – New York, NY
Luna Composition Lab – New York, NY
M³ (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians) – Woodside, NY
Metropolitan Music Community – Brooklyn, NY
Monday Evening Concerts – Los Angeles, CA
Montavilla Jazz – Portland, OR
Music is Art – Buffalo, NY
Musicambia – Brooklyn, NY
Network for New Music – Philadelphia, PA
New Music Gathering – Brooklyn, NY
New Orleans Airlift – New Orleans, LA
New Performance Traditions – San Francisco, CA
Recording Artists and Musicians with Disabilities (RAMPD) – New York, NY
Roomful of Teeth – Williamstown, MA
Roulette Intermedium – Brooklyn, NY
STooPS Art & Community – Brooklyn, NY
Street Symphony – Los Angeles, CA
The Industry – Los Angeles, CA
The Kitchen – New York, NY
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem – New York, NY
The New York Collective – Pound Ridge, NY
The Rhythm Method – Brooklyn, NY
The Westerlies – Brooklyn, NY
Thingamajigs – Oakland, CA
Unmanageable – Nashville, TN
Vox Grata – Nashville, TN
Wild Up – Los Angeles, CA
Wildflower Composers – Philadelphia, PA

Creation of New Work

Alternative Guitar Summit – Brooklyn, NY
Ancram Center for the Arts – Ancram, NY
Apollo Theater Foundation, Inc – New York, NY
Bardin-Niskala Duo – Middleburg, PA
Beth Morrison Projects, Inc (BMP) – Brooklyn, NY
Concert Theatre Works – Jersey City, NY
Conspirare – Austin, TX
FRAGMENTS – San Diego, CA
Freight & Salvage – Berkeley, CA
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – Boston, MA
New Ear – New York, NY
New Music Detroit – Birmingham, MI
Sphinx Organization, Inc – Detroit, MI
The Cedar Cultural Center, Inc – Minneapolis, MN
This is A Movement (TIAM) – Brooklyn, NY

Live Music for Dance

3 Pony Show & the Esperanza Arts Center – Philadelphia, PA
ALONZO KING LINES BALLET – San Francisco, CA
April Sellers Dance Collective – Minneapolis, MN
BANDALOOP – Oakland, CA
David Dorfman Dance – New York, NY
Dorrance Dance – New York, NY
Ephrat Asherie Dance – New York, NY
Gamelan Dharma Swara – Ridgewood, NY
Jiva Performing Arts – Long Island City, NY
Kaleidoscope Dance Theatre Inc – Auburn, NY
Music From The Sole – New York, NY
Post:ballet – Berkeley, CA
Ragamala Dance Company – Minneapolis, MN
Sequoia Ascension/Umi IMAN – Atlanta, GA
ShaLeigh Dance Works – Rougemont, NC
The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc – New York, NY
The Mariposa Collective – Boulder, CO
The Roxey Ballet Company, Inc – Frenchtown, NJ
Traverse City Dance Project – Traverse City, MI

New Music USA is committed to making all its grant programs equitable, by removing barriers in the application process and by elevating all artists and organizations who receive our support. The main criteria for this fund were: artistry, impact, need, and equity and inclusion. In addition, applicants were asked to submit a statement of endorsement from an artist or member of their community to highlight the impact of their work.

The peer review process for New Music USA’s Organization Fund applications reflects ongoing efforts to dismantle bias. For this round, New Music USA engaged 31 artists, composers, musicians, and administrators from locations around the country to build an independent review panel with 67% of people identifying as women and nonbinary, and 53% of people identifying as BIPOC.

Scott Winship, Director of Grantmaking Programs at New Music USA, says,

“We are proud to support 85 organizations across the US through our Organization Fund this year. It’s an honor to witness the impactful work of organizations across the musical spectrum, and we are deeply inspired by the work of all the awardees and applicants. The quality of this year’s applicants was extraordinarily high, and we regret that we were not able to support more of the incredible organizations that applied.”

Erin Roy, Executive Director of New York-based awardee David Dorfman Dance, shares:

“We are a dance company dedicated to original and live music, however as the costs of touring increase exponentially, this is a budget item that has been threatened. Our grant from New Music USA will go far in supporting the composing costs of our newest project and allow us to move forward confidently into the next one with continued commitment to supporting our musicians as they both compose and tour across the US. Thank you!”

Austin, TX-based awardee Conspirare adds:

“Conspirare believes in the power and integrity of new music in the vast choral repertoire and is committed to the broad exploration of new expressions, styles, and presentations. New Music USA’s grant will support a commission for choir and instruments from transcultural composer Derrick Skye – our second collaboration with him! This is an important opportunity to add an extended length choral work to the repertoire.”

Thank You to Our Panelists

New Music USA extends warm thanks to the 31 panelists from across the US who reviewed Organization Fund applications this year: Danah Bella, Brandi Berry Benson, Katherine Ciesinski, Tina Davidson, Anaar Desai-Stephens, Andre Dowell, Man Fang, Subashini Ganesan-Forbes, Shannon Gillen, Matt Ingalls, Alexandra Koi, Ting Luo, Arun Luthra, Shaya Lyon, Robert Maggio, John Mallia, Aakash Mittal, Berta Moreno, Rebecca Myers, Dale Novella, Steve Parker, Deinya Phenix, Ron Silver, Katherine Skovira, Kathleen Supove, Julia Tai, Sumi Tonooka, Nicole Touzien, Rod Vester, Nikara Warren, and Sarah Williams.

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 donate to New Music USA annually. Some of these funders had or have specific requests regarding the kinds of work we support, which includes around 50% of our funds going to New York-based artists or organizations. Please find more detailed breakdown info in our program FAQs.

Thank You to Our Funders

Support for New Music USA and its many programs and activities is provided by foundations, corporations, government agencies, and hundreds of individual contributors. The Organization Fund is funded in part by Fifth House Ensemble; support for organizations in New York State are made possible 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; support for organizations in New York City are funded in part by public funds form the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and with support from the Howard Gilman Foundation.

New Music USA acknowledges and is grateful for the support of its endowment donors, including the Mellon Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, Hewlett Foundation, Fidelity Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts.

About New Music USA

New Music USA is a national non-profit organization dedicated to advancing new music in all its forms. Our mission is to nurture a vibrant and inclusive community for artists and listeners by supporting the creation, performance, and appreciation of new music throughout the United States. Through responsive grant-making; skill-building; mentorship and convenings for creators from all backgrounds; and platforms designed to connect music-makers with organizations and their audiences, New Music USA works to ensure a thriving, connected, and equitable ecosystem for the music of our time. newmusicusa.org

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