Chamber Music America Announces $483,000 in Grants for New Works

CMA will distribute a total of $483,100 to 21 ensembles for the creation of new works. A total of $272,000 was awarded to nine jazz ensembles through the New Jazz Works program. Plus twelve grants totaling $211,100 have been awarded through the Classical Commissioning program.

Written By

NewMusicBox Staff

Chamber Music America (CMA), the national network for ensemble music professionals, today announced the recipients of its 2016 commissioning programs, supporting the creation of new works for small ensembles. CMA will distribute a total of $483,100 to 21 ensembles through two of its major grant programs: New Jazz Works, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Classical Commissioning, supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The ensembles selected this year reflect the diverse array of styles performed by small ensembles in the U.S. today, ranging from classical/contemporary keyboard sextet to jazz piano-violin duo to traditional wind, string, vocal, and jazz quartets. Independent peer panels of jazz and classical musicians selected the grantees in their respective programs in the spring. A list of grantees, composers, and instrumentation follows:

New Jazz Works
(Funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation)

A total of $272,000 was awarded to nine jazz ensembles through the New Jazz Works program, which supports the creation of new works by professional U.S.-based jazz artists and helps assure that these compositions will be heard through live performances and recordings.

Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet (Oakland, CA)
Composer: Ambrose Akinmusire
Instrumentation: Trumpet, piano/keyboards, bass, drums

Geof Bradfield Ensemble (Chicago, IL)
Composer: Geof Bradfield
Instrumentation: Tenor saxophone/bass clarinet, flute/tenor saxophone, alto saxophone/clarinet, trumpet, trombone, guitar/live electronics, bass, drums

Sylvie Courvoisier Mark Feldman DUO (Brooklyn, NY)
Composer: Sylvie Courvoisier
Instrumentation: Piano, violin

Musae (Union City, NJ)
Composer: Roman Filiu O’Reilly
Instrumentation: Alto saxophone, tenor saxophone/vocals, piano, guitar, bass, drums, percussion

Ryan Keberle and Catharsis (Brooklyn, NY)
Composer: Ryan Keberle
Instrumentation: Trombone/melodica, voice, trumpet, bass, drums

Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth (Brooklyn, NY)
Composer: Chris Lightcap
Instrumentation: Bass, saxophones, guitars, keyboards, drums

Todd Marcus Jazz Orchestra (Baltimore, MD)
Composer: Todd Marcus
Instrumentation: Bass clarinet, alto saxophone/flute, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass, drums

Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures (Maplewood, NJ)
Composer: Adam Rudolph
Instrumentation: Multiple percussion instruments, thumb piano, sintir, cornet/flugelhorn, multiple woodwinds, electronic keyboards, guitar, bass

Wayne Shorter Quartet (Los Angeles, CA)
Composer: Wayne Shorter
Instrumentation: Soprano/tenor saxophone, piano, bass, drums

Classical Commissioning
(Funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)

Twelve grants totaling $211,100 have been awarded through the Classical Commissioning program, which provides support for U.S.-based professional classical and world music ensembles and presenters for the creation and performance of new chamber works by American composers.

andPlay (New York, NY)
Composer: Ravi Kittappa
Instrumentation: Violin, viola

District5 (College Park, MD)
Composer: Evis Sammoutis
Instrumentation: Flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon

Grand Band (New York, NY)
Composer: Missy Mazzoli
Instrumentation: Six pianos

Horszowski Trio (New York, NY)
Composer: Andreia Pinto-Correia
Instrumentation: Violin, cello, piano

loadbang (New York, NY)
Composer: Mark Applebaum
Instrumentation: Trumpet, trombone, bass clarinet, baritone voice

Mantra Percussion (Woodside, NY)
Composer: Aaron Siegel
Instrumentation: Multiple percussion instruments, plus guest woodwinds

New York Polyphony (Brooklyn, NY)
Composer: Gregory Spears
Instrumentation: Countertenor, tenor, baritone, bass

Projeto Arcomusical (DeKalb, IL)
Composer: Elliot Cole
Instrumentation: Six berimbaus

Quince (Chicago, IL)
Composer: LJ White
Instrumentation: Three sopranos, one mezzo-soprano, electronics

Splinter Reeds (Oakland, CA)
Composer: Sky Macklay
Instrumentation: Clarinet, oboe, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, bassoon

Thalea String Quartet (San Francisco, CA)
Composer: Vincent Calianno
Instrumentation: Two violins, viola, violoncello, video playback with fixed 3-channel soundtrack

thingNY (Astoria, NY)
Composer: Rick Burkhardt
Instrumentation: Soprano, clarinet, saxophone, violin, percussion, double bass, plus speaking and singing by all ensemble members

Chamber Music America’s commissioning programs are also supported by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Amphion Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and the Chamber Music America Commissioning Endowment Fund. More information about Chamber Music America’s grant programs, including past grantees and projects, is available on their website.

(–from the press release)