The 2008 Commissioning Music/USA deadline has now passed. The next deadline will be in March 2009 and guidelines will be posted here in the Fall.

Countless new and important works have come into being through commissions. Commissions also provide a vital source of income and artistic development for composers. To ensure that composers and their commissioners have the knowledge and resources to successfully complete their goals, Meet The Composer offers support through its Commissioning Music/USA program. This support takes the form of subsidized commissioning fees as well as technical assistance in managing the entire life-cycle of a commissioning project.

Once a project is completed, Meet The Composer will make information on the commissioned work and the composer available to presenters and performers looking for new repertoire or new composers to commission.

The 2009 round of Commissioning Music/USA will consider applications for concert works, i.e. stand-alone musical works created by a single or collaborting composers and performable in a “concert” setting, in the following genres: chamber, jazz, orchestral, chorus, and solo works. Proposed works can be in any style and may be notated, improvised, electronic or any combination.

Applications are submitted by a single commissioner or consortium of commissioning organizations and are evaluated by an outside panel of artists and presenters. If selected to participate in the program, Commissioning Music/USA offers between $10,000 and $25,000 in support of the composer’s commissioning fee and copying expenses.

Commissioning Music/USA is made possible with the generous support of:

The Ford Foundation
The Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts
The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
New York State Council on the Arts
The Helen F. Whitaker Foundation