2027 Grantees
The Musical Fund Society granted over $70,000 to 14 organizations for projects in the 2026–27 season.
| Ars Nova Workshop | $6,000 | Box | Ars Nova Workshop will present a major new interdisciplinary work by composer, clarinetist, and producer Angel Bat Dawid, inspired by the life of Henry “Box” Brown, the enslaved man who mailed himself from Richmond to freedom in Philadelphia in 1849. In September 2026, ANW will be presenting the United States premiere in Philadelphia, with four local musicians. |
| Bowerbird | $3,000 | Canto Ostinato | Bowerbird will present Canto Ostinato by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt. The 90-minute performance will be performed on four marimbas by Philadelphia percussionists Emily Roane, Alyssa Resh, Travis Goffredo, and Andy Thierauf in February 2027 at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral. |
| The Crossing | $6,000 | Recorded Commissions | The Crossing will produce a studio recording of three of its newly commissioned works from three of North America’s most creative and powerful compositional voices: Nathalie Joachim of Philadelphia; Nicole Lizée, of Montreal, Quebec; and Sarah Rimkus, of Sewanee, Tennessee. Joachim and Rimkus’ works include cellist Thomas Mesa. The record will be post-produced in FY27 and commercially released in FY28. |
| Dolce Suono Ensemble | $6,000 | Exiles | Dolce Suono Ensemble’s project “Exiles” features works by composers who experienced it themselves and reflect on it in their works: Richard Danielpour, Gabriela Ortiz, Tzvi Avni, David Serkin Ludwig, Kian Ravaei. |
| East Passyunk Opera Project (ePOP) | $2,000 | Wondrous World of Opera | East Passyunk Opera Project’s “Wondrous World of Opera” is Philadelphia’s only opera-based education program for children in Pre-K to 3rd grade. WWO is developed to teach opera concepts through a new, interactive, three-part narrative-driven performance series for children and their families to experience together. |
| Esperanza Arts Center | $6,000 | Yukayeke | Inspired by the Taíno word Yukayeke, meaning “community,” this project explores how Latin American music, dance, and storytelling traditions were born in homes and communal gatherings of the Taino people. In collaboration with Philadelphia-based Cuban American choreographer Christina Castro-Tauser, four-time Latin Grammy nominated artist Suzzette Ortiz will compose original music that integrates elements of Bomba and Plena, Son Montuno, Bolero, Chacarera, and Festejo, using these rhythms to highlight the stories and dances shaped by collective life of the Taino people. |
| Glen Foerd Conservation Corporation | $2,000 | Keeping Time | Glen Foerd will commission a new experimental work from composer Matt Davis that activates the historic site for diverse audiences in Northeast Philadelphia and beyond. Keeping Time will reinterpret the site’s history by blending archival oral‑history recordings from past caretakers with Davis’s signature mix of aural storytelling and jazz music for the Haskell pipe organ, choir, and instrumental ensemble. |
| Journey Arts | $6,000 | KINTSUGI | KINTSUGI is an original 60-minute score for a collaborative performance exploring themes of intergenerational belonging, identity, and healing within the Philly-based Japanese American community; with composition and music direction by Sumi Tonooka, performed with Alchemy Sound Project. |
| Lyric Fest | $4,000 | Stars in the Quiet Skies | A diptych commission of composer Rene Orth and poet Jeanne Minahan, for soprano and piano, premiered in “Stars in the Quiet Skies,” a thematic song recital featuring composers with Philadelphia ties (James Primosch, Daron Hagen, Kile Smith, Samuel Barber) |
| Network for New Music | $6,000 | Schoenberg in Hi-Fi | In Schoenberg in Hi-Fi, composer Aaron Wyanski invents an alternate 1950s where Arnold Schoenberg’s radical modernism meets the lush sounds of lounge and exotica. Network for New Music will premiere Wyanski’s new eleven-player arrangement of Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16, alongside his original companion work (commissioned by Network), Five Pieces!, offering a witty, thought-provoking reflection on what we call “easy” and “difficult” music. |
| Orchestra 2001 | $2,000 | ¡CONEXIONES! | ¡CONEXIONES! is a series that has highlighted over 25 composers from across the Latin American diaspora over the past six years. In 2026-27, “Compositoras de América Latina” will feature four women composers: Clarice Assad (Brazil/USA), Gabriela Lena Frank (Peru/USA), Angélica Negrón (Puerto Rico), and Gabriela Ortiz (Mexico). |
| Piffaro, the Renaissance Band | $6,000 | Flauta dulce at AMLA | Piffaro teaching artist Miriam Arbelo will teach the flauta dulce to students for a second year in AMLA’s after-school program. Using materials from Piffaro’s library of 15th-17th century Latin American repertoire, she will collect and arrange the music and teach classes in soprano and alto recorders. Piffaro’s professional recorder players will visit the class to demonstrate consort playing on a full range of instruments. |
| PRISM Quartet, Inc. | $6,000 | Roots and Branches | PRISM Quartet will commission and perform a concert of new works that extend and reimagine the rich heritage of old-time and folk music from the Black diaspora, working with curator-performer-composers Leyla McCalla and Jake Blount to form a new ensemble that includes saxophones for the first time. |
| Tempesta di Mare | $3,000 | Tempesta for the Holidays | Tempesta for the Holidays is a new annual program of season-appropriate baroque rediscoveries alongside audience favorites on the last Sunday before Christmas at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square. |
| Wildflower Composers | $6,000 | The Wildflower Composers Festival | This two-week summer festival brings together young composers aged 13-19 for workshops, seminars, lessons, and the world premiere of their new compositions. For the 2026 season, musicians from Network for New Music will work alongside faculty and guest composers Melissa Dunphy, Cerulean Payne-Passmore, Sepehr Pirasteh, Sō Percussion, and Gemma Peacocke. |