$2.5M to Assist NYC Music Post September 11
The American Music Center today announced the grant recipients of the Mellon Foundation‘s Music Liberty Initiative for New York. The grants are intended to help small to mid-sized music organizations and composers in New York recover losses incurred in the aftermath of September 11.
Last fall the Mellon Foundation announced that $50 million would be made available to New York City arts and cultural organizations as well as public parks and individual artists. The AMC, along with the Alliance of Residence Theaters/NY and the New York Foundation for the Arts, was selected to distribute $2.5 million specifically to small and mid-sized music organizations and individual composers.
“The American Music Center is deeply grateful for this partnership with The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which made possible the Music Liberty Initiative for New York,” says AMC Executive Director Richard Kessler. “Our great city is home to a remarkable wealth of musical organizations and composers. It is our sincere hope that these grants will help to ensure the vitality of those organizations and artists whose work was significantly disrupted by the tragic events of September 11th.”
Michael Geller, Executive Director of the American Composers Orchestra, illustrates on a very practical level what the awards mean to the recipients. “It’s the best news we’ve had all year,” he acknowledges. “It will provide a good measure of stability to see us through this fiscal year, but also gives us a base to plan for the future.”
The funds are to be dispersed immediately. In total, New York City music organizations will receive grants totaling $2.4 million and 23 composers will receive grants totaling $100,000.
Organizations receiving a Music Liberty Initiative grant include:
- Absolute Ensemble
- American Composers Orchestra
- American Symphony Orchestra
- Association for Cultural Equity
- Bang on a Can
- Bargemusic
- Bronx Arts Ensemble
- Bronx Opera Company
- Brooklyn Heights Music Society
- Brooklyn Music School
- Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra
- Brooklyn Youth Chorus
- Chamber Music America
- Chinese-American Arts Council
- Composers Concordance
- Concordia Orchestra
- Cooper Union
- Dicapo Opera Theatre
- Downtown Music Productions
- Early Music Foundation
- Eclectic Arts
- Encompass New Opera Theatre
- The Ensemble Sospeso
- Eos Orchestra
- Exploring the Metropolis
- Gina Bachauer Memorial Concerts
- Golden Fleece
- Harmonie Ensemble
- Highlights in Jazz
- House Foundation for the Arts
- The Jazz Gallery
- JazzReach Performing Arts
- The Little Orchestra Society
- L’Opera Francais
- Manhattan Chamber Orchestra
- Manhattan New Music Project
- Meet The Composer
- MELA Foundation
- Midori & Friends
- Music at the Anthology
- Music Before 1800
- Music Outreach
- Musical Theatre Works
- Musicals Tonight
- National Alliance for Musical Theatre
- National Chorale
- New York Chamber Symphony
- New York Collegium
- New York Philomusica
- The New York Pops
- New York Scandia Symphony
- New York Youth Symphony
- Operaworks
- Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
- The Piatigorsky Foundation
- Queens Symphony Orchestra
- Quest Jr. Drum & Bugle Corps
- Quintet of the Americas
- Riverside Symphony
- Roulette Intermedium
- S.E.M. Ensemble
- St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble
- Sequitur
- The SoundArt Foundation
- Staten Island Chamber Music Players
- Staten Island Symphony
- Turtle Bay Music School
- Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
- The Walter Thompson Orchestra
- Western Wind Vocal Ensemble
- World Music Institute
- Young People’s Chorus of New York City