New Music USA, a group dedicated to the passionate advocacy of new music, has announced the awardees of its inaugural round of project grants. These grants, whose proposals have been considered since last November, were reviewed by 47 panelists throughout the country. The panel considered three main criteria in making their decisions: “Artistry, as demonstrated by examples of past and/or present work; impact, as defined by positive effect of the project on communities and participating artists; and
capacity, as defined by the ability to execute the project as proposed.” Of the 1,618 proposals submitted, 60 received funding totaling $337,000. The group defined its philosophy in how the grant proposals were considered and awarded: “the best way to serve new music is to ask the people making it what they need instead of telling them what they should want. We also believe that the process for requesting financial support should be simple and should help artists connect with audiences, not just funders.”
The next round of proposals will be considered beginning in March.
The projects cover many disciplines from dance and theater to large ensembles, chamber groups, jazz, or electronics and interdisciplinary endeavors. To even try to select a few projects worth highlighting would inevitably leave out dozens more that are worth giving attention. Time spent exploring the many diverse proposals that have received funding will be well awarded. If there are specific projects that you’d like to keep up-to-date on, it’s easy to create an account and receive periodic updates on its progress.
While there, it’s also worth the time to explore the “New Music USA Online Library” with its many digital scores and recordings of new works and projects. The site touts itself as being “a one-stop resource for anyone in need of information about new American music, from a conductor looking for choral works on a given theme to an ensemble searching for repertoire that fits its unusual instrumentation to a scholar studying the string quartets of a particular composer.” And New Music USA’s advocacy of new music extends beyond offering financial support to composers, performers, and presenters (quoted at over $1 million each year), and hosting an extensive database of online scores and recordings of new music. They also maintain the website Newmusicbox.com, which features news and ideas, and support the online service Counterstream Radio which offers 24/7 streaming of new music.
