2022 Grantees
The Musical Fund Society granted $62,800 to 12 organizations for projects in the 2021–22 season.
| Curtis Institute of Music | Curtis Institute of Music and the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based national organization dedicated to addressing diversity in the arts, will partner to safely bring the Sphinx Performance Academy to Curtis’s campus in June 2021. This full-scholarship summer program designed for Black and Latinx string players between the ages of 11 and 17 will be an intensive chamber music experience, and will provide a place for these young and talented musicians to once again make music with others. | $6,000 |
| Bowerbird | "Bartók in Philadelphia", a concert-theater work inspired by Philadelphia writer Jay Kirk's 2020 book "Avoid the Day", a work of "experimental nonfiction" rooted in the true story of the Philadelphia premiere of Bela Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3, a work dedicated to the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. | $6,000 |
| PRISM Quartet | The PRISM Quartet Institute is a new online pilot program that will serve artists, students, and teachers through four tracks: Business and Entrepreneurship; Recording and Technology; Teaching and Pedagogy; and Composition. Sessions are presented in collaboration with local universities and cultural organizations and will draw upon knowledge formed during the Quartet’s 36 years together, formalized as a curriculum for the first time. | $6,000 |
| Orchestra 2001 | “IN THE KEY OF L: Music Along SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line” will present a series of free, informal, daytime concerts along a transit route that cuts through dozens of diverse Philadelphia neighborhoods. Musicians and composers will present open rehearsals, opportunities to interact with listeners, and pop-up events at train stops, parking lots, and businesses from Upper Darby to the Northeast. | $6,000 |
| Network for New Music | Network for New Music will commission Grammy Award winning composer Lansing McLoskey to create a song-cycle for voice and the Network Ensemble using the musical allusions contained in Ulysses, a novel by James Joyce, which is celebrating the centennial of its publication in 2022. The concert event(s) will be in collaboration with the Rosenbach Museum which houses the manuscript of Ulysses, and will include other Joyce related works, pre/post concert discussions, and receive additional wide-range audience exposure through the Rosenbach's educational/outreach programming. | $6,000 |
| The Crossing | The Crossing will commission Philadelphia-based composer David Shapiro, to create a new evening-length new work, Dawkins Songs, based on the texts of Richard Dawkins. Dawkins Songs will have its world premiere as part of The Crossing’s premiere annual event—the 2022 Month of Moderns (MoM) Festival, which will take place in July 2022 in Philadelphia. | $4,800 |
| Young Women Composers Camp | The Young Women Composers Camp announces their Fifth Year Anniversary Concert, featuring four newly-commissioned works by local YWCC alumni and works composed by YWCC faculty for Quartet Iris, comprised of members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The concert will take place in fall 2022 at the Ethical Society. | $4,800 |
| Ars Nova Workshop | Ars Nova Workshop is commissioning a work from composer/performer Lea Bertucci entitled “Axis: Philadelphia,” dealing with a massive explosion in June 2018 at the largest oil-processing plant on the East Coast. A "scientist of spatial sound," Bertucci will use brass, percussion, and strings mixed with field recordings of ambient sound from the surrounding area to build a unique sonic tapestry that explores the looming physicality of the refinery over present-day life and a history that continues to reverberate in the city. | $4,800 |
| Esperanza Arts Center | Lo que vendrá, a musical “marathon” celebrating the centennial of the birth of renowned Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla. The marathon was developed by leading bandoneonist Shinjoo Cho, who will direct the performance, and also work with Esperanza Academy high school music students in the run-up to the event. | $4,800 |
| Intercultural Journeys | The Frances Suite is a new musical and poetic work by noted Philadelphia composer Ruth Naomi Floyd exploring the life of abolitionist, suffragist, and writer Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Taking place in Frances’ adopted hometown of Philadelphia, The Frances Suite illuminates Frances’ visionary work and words, sharing a vital vision of Black womanhood, creativity, and advocacy. | $4,000 |
| Astral Artists | Astral plans a CD release of recordings of Astral micro-commissions and other past commissions. This project coincides with Astral’s 30th Anniversary, which takes place during our 2021-2022 season. | $4,800 |
| Lyric Fest | This project celebrates the art songs of Philadelphia composer Benjamin C.S. Boyle, with the composer having coached all of the singers. Lyric Fest Co-Artistic Director Laura Ward is the pianist, collaborating with a roster of Philadelphia resident and connected musicians working within the highest ranks of the industry. | $4,800 |