Windy City Ramblers
2023
Chicago, IL
We will use the grant funds to finalize and release our recorded singles, ensuring they reach a wide audience through targeted marketing efforts. Additionally, we will chart four of our songs into brass band sheet music, specifically designed for educational use by high schools and colleges. This funding will also cover essential administrative and legal expenses, supporting both the growth of our music and the creation of valuable resources for educational institutions.
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem
2024
New York, NY
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem (NJMH) preserves, promotes and presents jazz by inspiring knowledge, appreciation and the celebration of jazz locally, nationally and internationally. We fuel our mission through four Core Programs: Education (with a special focus on Title I schools); Jazz &… (performance/outreach to BIPOC and other communities; Exhibits (inclusion of BIPOC curators/artists who aren't provided a platform with other museums); and Partnerships (alliances with jazz and jazz-adjacent artists/organizations). NJMH annually produces more than 180 free, highly-subsidized performances, activities and events serving people of all ages, races, ethnicities, backgrounds and income levels from Harlem, New York City, the U.S. and worldwide. Jazz lives in the space of the visceral experience. At the heart of our programming is the presentation of live music. This includes intimate performances and up-close access to legends as well as artists not found in other spaces who elevate the “jazz in Harlem experience.” We spotlight emerging and established musicians and feature female, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, indigenous and other underrepresented artists whose culture and artistry influence and are influenced by jazz.
The Joyce Theater Foundation
2024
New York, NY
With a cast of 12 dancers and 10 musicians, “A Very SW!NG OUT Holiday” invites audiences to revel in the joy of social dance and festive cheer. Featuring live music by the Eyal Vilner Big Band and created by director/choreographer Caleb Teicher and collaborators—Evita Arce, LaTasha Barnes, Nathan Bugh, and Eyal Vilner—14 performances of the Joyce Theater Production will be presented in December 2024.
The Industry
2024
Los Angeles, CA
The Industry is an experimental company that expands the operatic form. We bring together interdisciplinary artists to create collaborative performances that engage the cultural landscape of Los Angeles. We believe that opera is a living form that should respond to new perspectives and voices in contemporary culture. The Industry has led the operatic, multidisciplinary, and public art fields by developing singular performances in unexpected places. We pride ourselves on a holistic approach to creation: everything we do is a considered part of a whole work, not just what ends up on “stage”. We integrate artistic ideas, production, audience experience, and civic engagement.
The Cedar Cultural Center
2024
Minneapolis, MN
Launched in 2010, The Cedar Commissions grants annual commissions to six Minnesota-based emerging performers who represent different cultural backgrounds and aesthetic perspectives, culminating in performances of their new work for local audiences. In addition to a $5,000 cash award, the artists receive extensive professional development and digital content for future use. 81 artists have benefitted from the program since its inception.
Street Symphony
2024
Los Angeles, CA
Music as a catalyst for human connection: Street Symphony engages communities affected by homelessness and incarceration in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles with workshops, performances, and collaborative community events. Through the practice of citizen artistry and partnerships, our programs create pathways toward relationship, renewal, reentry, and recovery.
STooPS Art & Community
2024
Brooklyn, NY
STooPS creates opportunities for community building by showcasing interactive, multidisciplinary art on neighborhood stoops, sidewalks, and storefronts. We seek to reinvigorate outdoor spaces and the iconic brownstone stoops through meaningful interactions. Our programs range from an art crawl, block party, and art classes in unconventional spaces. STooPS was founded with the goal of finding ways to support sustainable connections among artists, homeowners, renters, and business owners.
Sphinx Organization
2024
Detroit, MI
Sphinx is a social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of the arts. Funding will support the creation of New Works by Black and Latino composers whose work is often under-performed and not a part of the classical music canon. These new works will be performed and toured in over 15 cities nationwide and abroad.
ShaLeigh Dance Works
2024
Rougemont, 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. Under the direction of Founder and Artistic Director ShaLeigh Comerford, SDW is recognized for its socially conscious works, expansive movement language, and commitment to community action.
Sequoia Ascension
2024
Atlanta, GA
Sequoia Ascension cultivates the well-being of Atlanta’s Black American and Native American communities by way of movement, music, and healing practices. Sequoia Ascension is thrilled to present Powwows & Ciphers: A Sacred Place to Be, a groundbreaking dance piece that highlights Afro-indigeneity by bringing together Hip Hop and Native American music and dance.
Copland House
2024
Peekskill, NY
Long a destination for gifted, early-career creators of all backgrounds and identities, the acclaimed CULTIVATE institute links Copland House’s three core program components – multi-faceted composer support, live and recorded performances, and education – and guides Fellows on all-embracing, exhilarating journeys through the entire artistic process – from creation and development through study, performance, and recording.
The Kitchen
2024
New York, NY
One of New York City’s oldest nonprofit alternative art centers, The Kitchen is dedicated to offering artists opportunities to create and present new work within and across the disciplines of dance, film, literature, music, theater, video, and visual art. The institution fosters a community of artists and audiences, offering artists the opportunity to create—and for audiences to engage with—work that pushes the boundaries of artistic disciplines and strengthens meaningful dialogues between the arts and larger culture.
Roulette Intermedium
2024
Brooklyn, NY
Founded in 1978, Roulette is an internationally-recognized venue, presenter, and producer of experimental music, movement, and media in Downtown Brooklyn, presenting on average 120 performances each year. As an artist-founded and led space, Roulette has awarded over $2,000,000 in commissioning and residency fees, and offers guaranteed artist fees for every performance.
Roomful of Teeth
2024
Williamstown, MA
Roomful of Teeth is a Grammy-winning vocal band dedicated to reimagining the expressive potential of the human voice. By engaging collaboratively with artists, thinkers, and community leaders from around the world, the group seeks to uplift and amplify voices old and new while creating and performing meaningful and adventurous music.
Recording Artists and Musicians with Disabilities (RAMPD)
2024
New York, NY
RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities) is a professional platform equipping the music and live entertainment industry with disability inclusive tools, programming and strategy. RAMPD also connects the industry to a global directory of peer-vetted music/sound creators and industry professionals with disabilities, neurodivergence and other chronic or mental health conditions, to find source and hire—bringing competitive opportunities, visibility and community to our Professional Members while offering disability inclusion to Industry/Venue partners.
Ragamala Dance Company
2024
Minneapolis, MN
Dharma is Life - forever sprouting, transforming, dissolving, and renewing. Ragamala Dance Company’s Children of Dharma reveals the power of ancient cultures to harmonize, heal, and reaffirm humanity's relationship with nature. “Ragamala shows how Indian forms can be some of the most transcendent experiences that dance has to offer.” - NY Time
Post:ballet
2024
Berkeley, CA
Founded by Robin Dekkers, Bay Area dance collective Post:ballet uses collaboration as a catalyst for pushing the ballet envelope and creating experiences that connect artists and audiences in new and meaningful ways. Post's newest collaboration "The Recital" features percussionist and Music Director Andy Meyerson onstage with the company dancers in a new music and dance recital by five composer/choreographer teams.
New York Collective - Swing Makes You Sing
2024
Pound Ridge, NY
Swing Makes You Sing! is a New York Collective's award-winning jazz appreciation and education initiative. Through dynamic storytelling, movement, multimedia presentations, and interactive musical performances, it shares jazz fundamentals (blues, swing, improvisation), inviting young audiences to a joyous celebration from 50 public schools across 9 states and internationally, as well as prestigious venues like the Kennedy Center and Perlman PAC NYC.
New Performance Traditions
2024
San Francisco, CA
New Performance Traditions’ mission is to provide contemporary musicians, composers, and performing artists with the facilities, tools, resources, and expertise necessary to create, produce, perform, and record new multidisciplinary works that challenge the boundaries within and between art forms and/or that challenge existing societal assumptions about culture, identity, and history.
New Orleans Airlift
2024
New Orleans, LA
New Orleans Airlift is an artist-led nonprofit that seeks to connect people, ideas, and cultures through the creation of collaborative artworks. Airlift's flagship project and permanent home, Music Box Village welcomes tens of thousands of visitors yearly to the interactive art-site and performance venue. Airlift’s programs provide access to experimental art for diverse populations, increase opportunities for local artists, culture-makers, and youth, and foster creative cross-pollination among disparate cultures in New Orleans and beyond.
New Music Gathering
2024
Brooklyn, NY
New Music Gathering is a conference/festival hybrid that is presented in a different city for each iteration. Dedicated to the performance, production, promotion, support, and creation of new and forward-thinking music, NMG seeks to bring together new music makers of all kinds in a welcoming and inclusive environment. With concerts, lecture/recitals, roundtable discussions, talks, and choreographed socializing like musician meet-ups and live action role playing games, NMG aims to be both a conference in the traditional sense but also quite literally a collective place for things to grow, improve, solidify, and above all get personal!
New Music Detroit
2024
Birmingham, MI
Heirloom, a multidisciplinary collaboration between New Music Detroit, composer Griffin Candey, choreographer Jillian Hopper, and fiber artist Rena Wood, looks at art through the lens of materiality. In increasingly digitally-mediated landscapes, Heirloom aims, both through performance and community participation, to explore what it means to remember through the process of craft—how we remember and are remembered through what we create.
New Ear
2024
New York, NY
Propelled by the energy and success of the New Ear Festival and the spatial sound series CT::SWaM [Contemporary Temporary::Sound Works and Music]. New Ear is focused on fostering experimentation in time-based media and interdisciplinary collaboration in New York City and beyond. Now in its ninth edition, the annual New Ear Festival is a bold exploration of avant-garde sound, contemporary music, and interdisciplinary performance, bolstering the creative, experimental spirit of downtown Manhattan. In 2025, we will launch a major commissioning initiative for contemporary, experimental sound artists.
Network for New Music
2024
Philadelphia, PA
Network for New Music commissions and performs new musical works by emerging and established artists of all identities. We engage audiences with vibrant and thought-provoking musical experiences that challenge and inspire. We are committed to excellent performances, innovative curation, in-depth education programs and cross-genre collaborations—all with the purpose of enriching the cultural life of greater Philadelphia.
Mutual Musician Mentorship
2024
Woodside, NY
Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization and platform created to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to musicians of historically underrepresented gender identities (including cis women, trans women, trans men and non-binary) in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions.
Concert Theatre Works
2024
Jersey City, NJ
Using the works of Dr. Oliver Sacks as the basis for his new composition, composer Tobias Picker will begin work with Concert Theatre Works on a new concert-theatre adaptation titled Musicophilia. The project aims to teach performing arts centers around the US how to effectively hold Relaxed Performances for neurodivergent audiences.
