New Music USA Announces 2026 Creator Fund Awardees
Total of $216,500 Awarded to 64 Creators
Thea Musgrave Performer – Composer Collaboration Grant Awarded to Stephanie Ann Boyd, Geoff Robertson, and Audrey Wright
Click Here for a YouTube Playlist Featuring the Grantees’ Work
New Music USA announces the selection of 64 grantees for the New Music Creator Fund, which offers grants to individual music creators to reach the next stage of their creative practice. Totaling $216,500 in funding across 13 states, this year’s awards support a range of musical perspectives and activities – from recording projects, to premieres, and beyond – with collaboration around new music creation as a central element.
The second annual Thea Musgrave Performer – Composer Collaboration Grant is awarded to New York-based composer Stephanie Ann Boyd, multidisciplinary artist and inventor Geoff Robertson, and violinist Audrey Wright for their project PRISMBODY. This $10,000 grant – made possible through the endowed gift of esteemed composer Thea Musgrave and her husband, renowned opera director Peter Mark – will support the commissioning and premiere of the work as well as dedicated workshop time between the three artists to enhance the strength of their collaboration.
In PRISMBODY, sound becomes color as Stephanie Ann Boyd composes through her synesthetic lens, building a new work with Geoff Robertson for Audrey Wright. As part of the work, Wright will be wearing Robertson’s creation The Garment, which transforms the solo violin into a radiant, multi-sensory instrument in this commission that explores how music can reach and resonate with audiences of varied abilities and ways of perceiving. Through a journey across the spectrums of vibration, PRISMBODY asks what new possibilities emerge when music is crafted to be felt through more than one sense.
New Music USA centers different regions every year based on funding and to ensure greater participation across the country. This year, the program was open to music creators based in the Midwest, Northeast/Mid-Atlantic, and New York. Next year’s program will be open to creators based in the South, West, and New York.
Creator Fund grants will support costs that relate to the development of new and existing ideas and projects, collaboration with other artists and practitioners, and any activities that help creators realize their goals, including childcare costs, technical assistance/skills building, and more.
See the full list of awardees below and on the New Music Creator Fund Program Page, and discover their work on this YouTube playlist:
2026 Creator Fund YouTube Playlist
New Music USA has sought to streamline the application process by providing clear guidelines, support webinars, and accessible project descriptions, e.g. written or recorded video. Applications are reviewed by a pool of independent peers from our community. For this round, which received 980 applications, New Music USA engaged 63 artists, composers, musicians, and administrators from locations around the country to review applications. Each eligible application received three panelist reviews.
Vanessa Rose, President & CEO of New Music USA, says:
“We cannot achieve our mission of nurturing a vibrant and inclusive community for artists and listeners without supporting the individuals who create the music of our time. The New Music Creator Fund aims to elevate the individual artists across the US engaging in innovative, collaborative work and taking creative risks – helping us to all Listen Forward. We are grateful to be able to offer this support for the important projects and pivotal stages in an artist’s career.”
Stephanie Ann Boyd, a recipient of this year’s Thea Musgrave Performer-Composer Collaboration Grant, adds:
“I am deeply grateful to Thea Musgrave and Peter Mark for their generous support through this grant. This award has made it possible for the three of us — violinist Audrey Wright, multimedia artist Geoff Robertson, and me — to spend the heart of this summer together in person, diving deep into the sounds, themes, and technology at the core of PRISMBODY. This project will be the most collaborative work I have ever made, and to have Thea and Peter’s belief in that vision, giving us the space to truly dream together, is a rare joy and an experience I will always cherish.”
MOYANA, an awardee based in Chicago, IL shares:
“I am so grateful to New Music USA for supporting my creative work. My primary goal as an artist is to ensure that I can compensate my collaborators fairly for their contributions, and I really appreciate the opportunity to put this value into practice with support from New Music USA. Thank you!”
Buffalo, NY-based awardee Obediya Jones-Darrell says:
“I am thrilled for the opportunity to write and record orchestral arrangements to bring a symphonic level of musicality to classic hip-hop music. Often grant support is given to Classical music and Jazz, but I am very impressed to see support for contemporary music like Hip-hop. This demonstrates that our national cultural institutions are in tune with the sound of today’s society and gives me hope for the future. This project would not be possible without the support of the New Music Creator Fund, and I am thankful for the support.”
Meet the Awardees
Thea Musgrave Performer-Composer Collaboration Grant:
Stephanie Ann Boyd, Geoff Robertson & Audrey Wright (New York, NY)
2026 New Music Creator Fund Grantees:
Alvin Cobb, Jr. (Chicago, IL)
Ben B. Goss (New York, NY)
Brian Harnetty (Columbus, OH)
Calvin Van Zytveld (Grand Rapids, MI)
Charmaine Lee (New York, NY)
Chris Fisher-Lochhead (Arlington, VT)
Chuck Iwanusa (Lansing, MI)
Cuee (New Britain, CT)
Daniel Temkin & The Dolphins Quartet (Lewisburg, PA)
Danielle Jagelski (New York, NY)
David Adams (lildave215) (Philadelphia, PA)
Deerlady (Old Town, ME)
Dorothy Carlos (Chicago, IL)
Emi Makabe (Brooklyn, NY)
Emmett Jackson (Chicago, IL)
Erika Ji (Queens, NY)
Felipe Lara (Jersey City, NJ)
Gwen Marie Laster (Beacon, NY)
Hannah Marks (Brooklyn, NY)
Hannah Soren (Ithaca, NY)
Hans Thomalla (Chicago, IL)
Ivan Llanes (Union City, NJ)
James Ra (Coatesville, PA)
Jlin (Jerrilynn Patton) (Merrillville, IN)
Joe McCarthy (Clinton, CT)
John Roseboro (Brooklyn, NY)
Johnathan Moore (New Haven, CT)
Jon Irabagon (Park Ridge, IL)
Jordan Young (Queens, NY)
Katherine Skovira & Robert Whalen (Clifton Park, NY)
Kyle Flens – Flannau Duo (Chicago, IL)
Laura Strickling (Racine, WI)
Linghui Tu (Vestal, NY)
Magos Herrera (New York, NY)
Mari Kimura (New York, NY)
Marshall Trammell (Music Research Strategies) (Kansas City, MO)
MaYita (Maya Martínez Gómez) (Brooklyn, NY)
Meadow Bridgham (Fishers, IN)
MOYANA (Chicago, IL)
Nelle June Anderson & Anne LeBaron (Ann Arbor, MI)
Niko Eme (Anoka, MN)
Niloufar Nourbakhsh & Mahsa Vahdat (Stoneham, MA)
Obediya Jones-Darrell (Buffalo, NY)
Pascal Le Boeuf, Miguel Zenon, & Anna Huang’s Human-AI Resonance Lab (Somerville, MA)
Paul Pinto (Jersey City, NJ)
Phyllis Chen & Benjamin Lazar Davis (New Paltz, NY)
Ravish Momin (Sunken Cages) (Philadelphia, PA)
Rohan Sridharan (Princeton, NJ)
Salina Kuo (Philadelphia, PA)
Sarah Hennies & Bhob Rainey (Ithaca, NY)
Sarah Khatami (Brooklyn, NY)
Sasha Ishov & Will Yager (Chicago, IL)
Scott Robinson & aRT (Teaneck, NJ)
Scott Wollschleger (Brooklyn, NY)
Seth Cluett & Abigail Levine (New York, NY)
Shara Nova (My Brightest Diamond) (Royal Oak, MI)
Sound Sovereign (New York, NY)
Su Lee (Buffalo, NY)
Svjetlana Bukvich & Carl Stone (New York, NY)
Talia Billig (Kerhonkson, NY)
The Narcotix: Becky Foinchas & Esther Quansah (Brooklyn, NY)
Wolf Weston (Selkist) (Brooklyn, NY)
YOU’RE (Brooklyn, NY)
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