New Music USA Announces 2026 Organization Fund Awardees

Total of $564,250 Awarded to 80 Organizations 

Click Here for a YouTube Playlist Featuring the Grantees’ Work  

New Music USA announces the selection of 80 awardees for the 2026 New Music Organization Fund, which offers grants to non-profit organizations, performance groups, dance organizations, festivals, presenters, and venues that need support to sustain their programming of new music and/or nurturing of music creators and other artists. Totaling $564,250 in funding across 22 states plus Washington, D.C., this year’s awardees demonstrate a deep and consistent impact on their community of artists and music lovers, and a commitment to cultivating creativity, particularly with regard to leveraging new music in the service of individual and community transformation.

Organization Fund applicants were asked to select their preferred funding strand from one of the following categories: General Operating Support, to provide unrestricted support to the organization; Creation of New Work, to fund a specific new music project or program; or Live Music for Dance, for support of projects that involve the use and creation of new and live music for dance performances. General Operating Support awardees constitute 75% of this year’s awards; Creation of New Work awardees, 11%; and Live Music for Dance awardees, 14%. The average grant amount is $7,000, and the maximum is $10,000.

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 attracted 588 applications, New Music USA engaged 34 artists, composers, musicians, and administrators from locations around the country to review applications. Each application was evaluated based on four criteria: Artistry, Community Value, Engagement and Impact, and Organizational Readiness and Need.

Vanessa Rose, President & CEO of New Music USA, says,

“We are pleased to provide this support to such a strong and varied group of organizations. Through our New Music Organization Fund, we can both recognize and provide important funding to vital organizations engaging their communities with creative work that helps us all to Listen Forward.”

Sarah Craig, Executive Director of Caffe Lena (General Operating Support – Saratoga Springs, NY) shares:

“We are deeply grateful to New Music USA for recognizing the role a historic folk venue can play in the creation of new music. While Caffe Lena is known for its rich history, our daily work is about supporting today’s songwriters and helping new music find its audience. This award strengthens a creative ecosystem that includes hundreds of performances of original work each year, artist development through open mics, songwriting programs and education, and commissioned works such as TrueSongs. We’re honored that New Music USA sees original songwriting in the folk tradition as an essential part of America’s musical future.”

Celine Thackston, Co-Founder and Development Strategist of Unmanageable (General Operating Support – Nashville, TN) says:

“We’re so grateful for New Music USA’s investment, which will strengthen the infrastructure behind our work and expand our capacity to serve independent artists engaged in social change work. This work matters particularly in the South, where arts funding remains persistently under-resourced. Thank you!”

Kariz Marcel, Founder of Blakwater Production House (Creation of New Work – Baltimore, MD) adds:

“This grant will help us identify seasoned elders in our music community whose talent, stories, and contributions deserve to be celebrated. Thanks to New Music USA’s support, we will be able to provide free studio time, access to producers, performance space, and professional guidance to help these artists record and release their first official projects. This opportunity allows us to honor legacy while creating new work that can be shared with future generations.”

Mai Lê Hô, Founder and Artistic Director of LayeRhythm (Live Music for Dance – New York, NY) shares:

“Support from New Music USA will give us the time and resources to build a truly new musical language for dance. These funds allow our musicians to train alongside street/club dance practitioners, learn the cultural foundations of each movement tradition, and develop the responsiveness needed to co-create music for dancers in real time. New Music USA’s investment makes that level of experimentation and rigor possible.”

See the full list of awardees below and on the New Music Organization Fund program page, and discover their work on the 2026 Organization Fund YouTube Playlist.

2026 New Music Organization Fund Awardees

General Operating Support

• [Switch~ Ensemble] – Schenectady, NY
• Akropolis Reed Quintet – Northville, MI
• Alarm Will Sound – New York, NY
• Arts For Art – New York, NY
• ATL Collective – Atlanta, GA
• Bang on a Can – Brooklyn, NY
• Boulanger Initiative – Takoma Park, MD
• Bowdoin International Music Festival – Brunswick, ME
• Caffe Lena – Saratoga Springs, NY
• Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education – Bronx, NY
• Contemporaneous – New York, NY
• Current Space – Baltimore, MD
• Death of Classical, Inc. – Brooklyn, NY
• Decolonizing the Music Room – Fort Worth, TX
• Either/Or – New York, NY
• El Paso Jazz Girls – El Paso, TX
• Ensemble Ipse – Brooklyn, NY
• Esperanza Arts Center – Philadelphia, PA
• FirstWorks – Providence, RI
• fivebyfive – Rochester, NY
• FourOneOne – New York, NY
• Frequency Festival – Chicago, IL
• Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center – Buffalo, NY
• Harvestworks – New York, NY
• Indexical – Santa Cruz, CA
• Iranian Female Composers Association (IFCA) – Austin, TX
• JACK Quartet – New York, NY
• Kronos Quartet – San Francisco, CA
• Loop38 – Houston, TX
• Momenta Quartet – New York, NY
• Montez Press Radio – New York, NY
• Musicambia – Brooklyn, NY
• Nameless Sound – Houston, TX
• New Music On The Point – Leicester, VT
• New Performance Traditions – San Francisco, CA
• North Dakota Museum of Art – Grand Forks, ND
• Nurturing Original Voices in the Arts (NOVA) – Jersey City, NJ
• Renegade Opera – Portland, OR
• Rhizome DC – Washington, D.C.
• Rock Autism – Buffalo, NY
• Roomful of Teeth – Williamstown, MA
• RootStock Arts – Oakland, CA
• Siletz Bay Music Festival – Lincoln City, OR
• Sō Percussion – Brooklyn, NY
• Society for New Music – Syracuse, NY
• SOLI Chamber Ensemble – San Antonio, TX
• South Hudson Music Project – Seattle, WA
• Synchromy – Pasadena, CA
• TAC Temescal Art Center – Oakland, CA
• TAK ensemble – Brooklyn, NY
• The Avalon Lounge – Catskill, NY
• The Cedar Cultural Center – Minneapolis, MN
• The Jazz Gallery – New York, NY
• The Queer Urban Orchestra (QUO) – New York, NY
• The Rising Artist Foundation – Brooklyn, NY
• THE WORLD STAGE PERFORMANCE GALLERY – Los Angeles, CA
• Unmanageable – Nashville, TN
• Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra – New York, NY
• We Rock CLT – Charlotte, NC
• Wild Shore New Music – Homer, AK

Creation of New Work

• Blakwater Production House – Baltimore, MD
• Brooklyn Youth Chorus – Brooklyn, NY
• Capital Region Classical – Schenectady, NY
• Castle of our Skins – Boston, MA
• Community MusicWorks – Providence, RI
• Ellis Marsalis Center for Music – New Orleans, LA
• ILL DOOTS – Philadelphia, PA
• Meredith Monk/The House Foundation for the Arts – New York, NY
• Vermont Symphony Orchestra – Burlington, VT

Live Music for Dance

• Big Dance Theater – New York, NY
• Dance Mission Theater – San Francisco, CA
• David Dorfman Dance – New York, NY
• Emergent Improvisation NYC – New York, NY
• House of Gongs – Kapolei, HI
• LayeRhythm – New York, NY
• LEIMAY – New York, NY
• Motor City Street Dance Academy – Detroit, MI
• Sequoia Ascension – Atlanta, GA
• Soles of Duende – New York, NY
• The New York Baroque Dance Company – New York, NY

Funding Transparency

Both the New Music Organization Fund and New Music Creator 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.

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 and the Howard Gilman Foundation. Grants to organizations in New York 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 and with public funds form the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

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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