2021 Grantees
The Musical Fund Society granted $60,000 to 12 organizations for projects in the 2020–21 season.
| Dolce Suono Ensemble | "International Women Composers" is a mini-festival with performances taking place on the DSE Presents concert series in Philadelphia, two performance/masterclass/talkback events as part of DSE's "Fall for Chamber Music" engagement initiative at the Free Library of Philadelphia, and a DSE partnership visit to The Masterman School. Through compelling programming, the celebrated ensemble invites the community to take a global view of the contributions of women. | $6,000 |
| Astral Artists | Together with Play on Philly and Mural Arts Philadelphia, Astral has reimagined it’s Young at Art live concerts as virtual engagement of music and visual art. Ensembles of POP musicians and Astral’s world-class artists will pair music and murals virtually for five mini-concerts celebrating music and visual art in public spaces. The series will be free to view and premiered in a number of “drop” events the week of April 26-30, 2021. | $6,000 |
| Mann Center for Performing Arts | The Mann Center’s All City Orchestra Summer Academy (ACOSA) will bring Philadelphia-area students to the Mann Center’s West Parkside campus for a one-of-a-kind, two-week summer learning academy, completely free of charge. | $6,000 |
| PRISM Quartet | PRISM Quartet and Network for New Music will record Robert Capanna’s 18-minute “Piccolo Concertante” (2016) for saxophone quartet and wind quintet as a digital EP. The work will be recorded during the 21-22 season and released early in the 22-23 season. | $6,000 |
| Temple Music Prep | Commission of double string orchestra work by Icelandic composer Snorri Sigfús Birgisson for joint performances by Temple Music Prep Youth Chamber Orchestra and the Tonskoli Sigursveins D. Kristissonar. While the work has been completed the premier has been delayed due to COVID-19 | $6,000 |
| Curtis Institute of Music | Curtis and the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based national organization dedicated to addressing diversity in the arts, will partner in June 2020 to bring the Sphinx Performance Academy at Curtis Summerfest to Philadelphia for its third consecutive summer. This full-scholarship intensive chamber music and solo performance program is designed for Black and Latinx string players between the ages of 11 to 17. | $5,000 |
| Network for New Music | In collaboration with First Person Arts, NNM will create five works combining spoken-word, family-friendly, crowd-sourced "love stories" from the residents of Germantown with accompanying digital soundtracks commissioned from Paul Schuette; Wendel Patrick / Kevin Gift; Quinn Collins; Jerod Sommerfeldt, and Leila Adu, featuring original music and sampled sounds from the Network Ensemble. Each 'chapter' in Love Stories will be broadcast on G-town Radio 92.9 FM in the week leading up to Valentine's Day and culminate in the broadcast of the full 'story' on February 14 2021. | $5,000 |
| Variant 6 | In November 2020, Variant 6 will record their 2019 commission for voices and electronics, Fall and Decline, by composer Gregory W Brown, to be released on the Navona record label. This work sets texts by a wide range of authors including a 12th century Persian philosopher and a contemporary poet in an exploration of how civilizations both in the past and in the present must all face inevitable decline. The album release is slated for May 2021. | $4,000 |
| Bowerbird | "Coming Together" is a special concert featuring the music of Frederic Rzewski that will take place in the Spring 2021. The concert will include performances by Frederic Rzewski, Camae Ayewa, and Arcana New Music Ensemble. | $4,800 |
| Chamber Orchestra FIRST EDITIONS | Chamber Orchestra FIRST EDITIONS (COFE) will present two programs in 2020-21 juxtaposing rarely played masterpieces by Philadelphians with the earlier works that provided models and inspired them. Both programs will be presented in Philadelphia at Trinity Center, one of them also at Swarthmore College, the other at Haverford College. All concerts will be free and open to the public. | $4,800 |
| Intercultural Journeys | When I Sing, a first-time collaboration between Intercultural Journeys (IJ) and Sister Cities Girlchoir (SCG), is a collaborative musical and spoken word work that, sparked by the voice and legacy of Philadelphia icon Marian Anderson, explores how young women can use their own voices for artistry and advocacy. This event has moved to a virtual format and will be premiering in Spring 2021. | $3,200 |
| Piffaro | Piffaro has moved to a virtual series for the 20/21 season. Its final concert in this digital series is slated for May 7-13, 2021. With its early double reeds, brass and recorders, Piffaro joins forces with the Philadelphia-based Baroque ensemble Kleine Kammermusik and its oboes, bassoon, baroque recorders, cello and harpsichord in The Art of the Fugue. This program traces the development of the stylistic intricacies of contrapuntal style from the 15th century composer Johannes Ockeghem to J.S. Bach and his virtuosic fugal compositions. | $3,200 |