Who We Are

Our vision, mission, values, impact, and people

Our Vision

We envision a thriving, connected, and equitable ecosystem for the music of our time, in all its forms.

Our Mission

We nurture a vibrant and inclusive community for artists and listeners by supporting the creation, performance, and appreciation of new music throughout the United States.

2021-2022 Impact Report

Your support and creativity enabled us to do more than ever before.
View Report

Our Values

Imagination

We believe that imagination is the key to building a better, more open world. Imagination helps us and our community to discover new sounds, new ideas, and better ways to bring people together.

Connectivity

Music derives its meaning from an interconnected community or ecosystem of creators, interpreters, presenters, advocates, supporters, listeners, and partners. We see our role as nurturing community and forging connectivity across aesthetic, geographic, racial, and cultural divides.

Empowerment

We seek to empower our whole community by amplifying voices that have not been sufficiently heard, identifying barriers to access, and providing resources that help all talented creators thrive.

Belonging

In new music, every sound is welcome. We strive to create a sense of belonging by continuing to examine our relationships and implicit biases, and by creating inclusive opportunities through which diverse perspectives are celebrated. We do this with intention and an ongoing commitment to evolving in response to the needs of our community.

Trust

New Music USA is from and of the community it serves. Our community's trust is something we will never take for granted; it provides the foundation from which we lead, support, collaborate, and respond as an accountable partner.

Our Commitment to Equity and Inclusion

New Music USA stands in opposition to injustice and bias against all marginalized communities. We do this by building diverse and inclusive programs and resources that reflect the music community our national organization serves. We believe that music can be a change agent for a more just and balanced world. We value belonging, empowerment, imagination, connectivity, and trust, and we embed these values in our organizational culture and across all our program activities.

Read our Action Plan

Our Impact

Advocating for new music and our community of performers, composers, and appreciators is at the heart of everything New Music USA does. Here are some of the ways we measure our impact.

Years of operation
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Total awardees in 2022
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Total awarded since 2011
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Percentage of BIPOC artists awarded in 2022 individual grants
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Percentage of women & non-binary artists awarded in 2022 individual grants
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States represented in 2022
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Solidarity Fund grant recipients in 2020
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Total Solidarity Fund donors
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Meet Our People

We’re a passionate team of music makers and music lovers, and we’re proud to be part of the dynamic new music ecosystem in the United States.

Learn more about our staff, board, and councils
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Our History

For the past ten years, New Music USA has offered support and opportunities to individual artists and organizations undertaking imaginative and transformative work in music.

We are known for our project grants and programs and our role as advocate for new music discovery in the United States. We represent our community internationally through our membership of the International Association of Music Information Centers and the International Society for Contemporary Music.

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We’re fortunate to have as our legacy, decades of good work done by the American Music Center and Meet the Composer, the two important organizations that merged to form New Music USA in 2011. The American Music Center (AMC) was founded in 1939 as a membership organization by composers Marion Bauer, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Harrison Kerr, Otto Luening, and Quincy Porter. Meet The Composer was founded in 1974 by the New York State Council on the Arts and later run as an independent organization by the composer John Duffy.

Read more about our history here.