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The Next Chapter

Dear Christopher,

I recently joined New Music USA as President and CEO because I’m passionate about delivering more support to the many talented people who are bringing new music into our lives. I want this vibrant community of composers, performers, presenters, and programmers to have the funds they need to create exceptional work. I also want to be sure that New Music USA is doing everything in its powers to grow creative opportunities, programs, and services that will help the whole new music field to thrive. But first, I know that I need to listen and learn. So that’s how I’ve spent my first four months here. 

This fall we launched a survey to assess the needs of the new music community. I traveled and met with composers, performers, administrators, supporters, and other members of our community in places such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Miami, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. I asked to meet with many different people, so I could hear the stories of the creators who make up our field. 

Happy Holidays!

Message From Vanessa Reed on Our New Amplifying Voices Program

This month, I’m very excited to announce a new partnership with the wonderful Sphinx Organization which was established to address the under-representation of people of color in classical music. The new Sphinx Venture Fund is enabling us to work with consortia of orchestras and composers to create more opportunities for co-commissioning and promotion of repertoire by diverse US-based composers who are writing exceptional music. In recent years, we’ve seen many positive examples of US orchestras commissioning and working closely with composers of color, including Philadelphia Orchestra and Detroit Symphony which facilitated hugely successful residencies with Hannibal Lokumbe and Gabriela Frank through our Music Alive program with support from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Amplifying Voices seeks to increase the momentum behind this change by encouraging more collaboration and collective action towards equitable representation of composers of color in the contemporary classical canon. As well as stimulating co-commissions and performance of existing repertoire, our new initiative with Sphinx will give composers the chance to contribute to artistic-planning, working with our team at New Music USA and orchestras’ artistic management on highlighting the array of excellent composers whose work would benefit from more exposure. 

Many of you told us in our 2019 Impact Survey that you wanted New Music USA to encourage a greater awareness of equity, diversity, and inclusion amongst the people and organizations we work with and support. Amplifying Voices is a response to this feedback and represents New Music USA’s first step towards other new initiatives which will put partnerships between music creators, performers, and institutions at the heart of long-term sector change.

Watch out for more news at SphinxConnect next February and thanks to my team at New Music USA and to Afa Dworkin at Sphinx for making this work possible!





 

Winter 2020 Project Grant Round Now Open

The deadline for submission will be 5 pm Eastern Time on Thursday, January 30, 2020. The online system is now open to accept applications.

Thank you to everyone who made their voice heard in our Impact Survey this fall. Based on your input, we've made many changes to our Project Grant program. Please read the full guidelines to see how your feedback has helped us implement new restrictions as well as increased transparency around funding facts and figures.

The Furies: A Laptopera

The Furies: A Laptopera is a retelling of the Greek tragedy Electra. It explores central questions regarding how communities escape from cycles of violence and the role of guilt and shame in community identity. This work investigates themes of personal responsibility, how justice interfaces with cycles of violence, and redemption. Watch a video of Act III here and mark your calendars for the full premiere of the entire opera in March 2020.

We Need an Antiracist Music Theory Classroom

Dave Molk writes in his recent NewMusicBox article, "Teaching Inequality: Consequences of Traditional Music Theory Pedagogy" that an antiracist approach to music theory recognizes that Western art music is simply one among many equally valid forms of artistic musical expression.

Stories from the Field: Grace and Mercy

Support from New Music USA allowed for the Fisher Center to present two beautiful and ambitious collaborations—Grace and Mercy—and bring the work of these incredible artists further into the community through free classes taught by Brown at the Fisher Center and other local venues.

—Gideon Lester, Artistic Director for Theater and Dance, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College

Make more stories like this happen, donate today!

Stories from the Field: A?rabe

Árabe would not be possible without the support of New Music USA! I have been able to expand my artistry, seek out new collaborators in different disciplines than my own, and create a project that is truly representative of my musical and personal identity.

—Amanda Ekery

Make more stories like this happen, donate today!

Winter 2020 Project Grant Deadline Approaching

The deadline for submission will be 5 pm Eastern Time on Thursday, January 30, 2020.

New Music USA Project Grants support a wide range of new music projects from individuals, groups, or organizations and focuses on any activity that involves new music getting out into the world.

We’re especially interested in having our funds go towards paying artists directly for their work, whether that’s creating, engaging, performing, or something else. We place special emphasis on:

• The creation of new musical work
• New live music for dance
• Recording costs
• Residency and community outreach activities

Val Jeanty hailed a 2020 Winter Jazzfest "must-see"

Sound artist Val Jeanty, who has created a distinctive style of music called Vodou electronica—a fusion of electronics and African Vodou rhythms—contributed mightily to multiple performances throughout the festival including Kris Davis' new project Diatom Ribbons with Jeanty and Terri Lyne Carrington as well as with the experimental project Nite Bjuti. Val Jeanty was a 2019 New Music USA Project Grant recipient with performance artist Risha Rox for their work Ritual Merging.

Ricky Ian Gordon and Frank Bidart's Ellen West praised as "unforgettable" during Prototype Festival

The seventy-five-minute one-act for two singers, two dancers, and chamber orchestra by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Frank Bidart is inspired by the case study of a real-life, early 20th-century woman who suffered from body dysmorphia and multiple eating disorders.

This 2019 New Music USA Project Grant recipient stood out during the annual festival of challenging, meaningful new works produced by Prototype. Read reviews from The New York Times, New York Classical Review, and OperaWire.

The next phase of the 'Bonnie Jones Grant'

Sound artist Bonnie Jones has been a busy organizer in the Baltimore art scene for 20 years. Creation, performance, curation, and community service are all crucial facets of her artistic life. 

Jones made a big impression at the Baltimore New Music Gathering as part of a panel featuring artists outside academia, saying, “I support my practice with the Bonnie Jones Grant. It’s called a job!”  She also wrote an amazing essay for NewMusicBox about the same subject a few years later. As the January 2020 cover interview for NewMusicBox, Jones talks with Alexandra Gardner about the next phase of this Bonnie Jones Grant as well as her work with Girls Rock Camps; DIY, handmade electronics building; and developing an inclusive understanding of her creative practice.

New Music Near You

• JANUARY 26, 2020 | FLIGHT+FUGUE: A Special Fifth Anniversary Concert | Houston, TX + LIVESTREAM
• JANUARY 28, 2020 | Outpost Concert Series - The Living Earth Show | Riverside, CA | FREE EVENT
• FEBRUARY 1, 2020 | Grand Chamber Music | Lowell, MA + LIVESTREAM
• FEBRUARY 9, 2020 | Transient Canvas and Michael Hall at Constellation | Chicago, IL
• FEBRUARY 11, 2020 | Each flows into the other (Project Grant Awardee) | Washington, DC
• FEBRUARY 16, 2020 | Premiere Performance of New Works written for fivebyfive (Project Grant Awardee) | Rochester, NY