American Composers Forum (ACF) Subito Grants

American Composers Forum (ACF) Subito Grants is sponsored by American Composers Forum (ACF). This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

Considering music’s role in the narrative of our nation’s founding and future There are 39 opportunities listed. 10 new opportunities have been posted this month. Performances, conferences, workshops, and community conversations across the U.S. ACF supports and advocates for creators of new music by connecting artists with resources, funding, and performance opportunities that ensure their work flourishes and resonates.

Our work affirms the creation of music as an essential part of our American society and culture. Read our full mission & story Queen Drea — Photo by Jayme Halbritter Sivan Cohen Elias — Photo by Patrick Pelham deVon Russell Gray — Photo by Ryan Cutler IOSIS a. k.

a. Alex Bissen — Photo by Patrick Pelham From American Composers Forum World Premiere: “Born on the 4th of July” by Queen Drea Due to the ongoing wildfires in Minnesota and the resulting poor air quality, this outdoor event has been indefinitely postponed. A new performance date will be announced as soon as possible.

Queen Drea is a sound alchemist, mixing sonic potions laced with looped vocals, jagged rhythms, and… Blacknificently Divine: Martha’s Vineyard This special chamber music concert features artists from HBCU Arts and Castle of our Skins, performing works by the Blacknificent 7 Composer Collective — Jessie Montgomery, Jasmine Barnes, Shawn Okpebholo, Damien Geter, Dave Ragland, Joel Thompson, and Carlos Simon.

The program also includes the world premiere of a newly commissioned… World Premiere: “Black Joy Verses” by Daniel Bernard Roumain Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a prolific Black, Haitian-American composer and performer known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic and African-American music influences.

For his Recomposing America project, ACF has co-commissioned a new work titled Black Joy Verses for … I CARE IF YOU LISTEN is the editorially-independent publication of American Composers Forum. The website features reviews, interviews, artist-curated playlists, profiles, essays, and video premieres. From I CARE IF YOU LISTEN ListN Up Playlist: Amadeus Julian Regucera (Jul.

23, 2026) The work of Amadeus Julian Regucera (b.

1984, He/They) engages with the embodied and acoustical energ… [Ahmed], Amadeus Julian Regucera, Amadeus Regucera, Charles Curtis, Charmaine Lee, Elaine Mitchener, Éliane Radigue, EMPAC, Eva Furrer, Gaber Modus Operandi, Georges Aperghis, HULUBALANG, Johanne Saunier, Kasimyn, Miho Hatori, Mike Schmidt, Richard Dubelsky, Sarah Davachi 5 Questions to Sarah Hennies (composer) Over the past 20 years, Sarah Hennies has developed an iterative musical practice that finds sonic a… [Switch~Ensemble], Alex Matterson, Andrew Yee, Bent Duo, Cabrillo Festival, EMPAC, GLISS Residency, Greg Stuart, Hazel Foxræ, inti figgis-vizueta, Joe Houston, Judith Hamann, Lulu West, Nate Wooley, Sarah Hennies, Sarah Saviet, Stuart Saunders Smith, Tristan Kasten-Krause 5 Questions to Andrew Yee (cellist, composer) Andrew Yee, a multi-hyphenate new music powerhouse, continues to build an oeuvre that spans composit… Andrew Yee, Attacca Quartet, Caroline Shaw, New Amsterdam Records, NOVUS NY, Trinity Choir ListN Up Playlist: Dylan Fujioka (Jul.

9, 2026) Dylan Fujioka is a Japanese-American composer, performer, actor, and model most known for his work o… Akira Ifukube, Bad Brains, Dylan Fujioka, Jeanette, Juan Gabriel, Ocrilim, Ornette Coleman, Selena, Siouxsie And The Banshees, The Peanuts Review: Royal College of Music “Fantasy and Fairytales” It’s end-of-term showtime at the London conservatoires, and recently I’ve seen some exciting new sho… Alex Hardy, Anastasia Koorn, Asher Joyce, Bella Marslen, Charlotte Jane Kennedy, Daniel Musashi, David Fraser, Deniz Dortok, Eden Shifroni, Lasha Kharkhelauri, Michael Rosewell, Royal College of Music, Ruvin Meda, Taining Zhao, Tète-à-Tète, Tom Law Review: Ash Fure and Laurel Halo at Pioneer Works Everything seemed perfectly engineered for presence on Jun.

25 at Pioneer Works.

The sun twinkled go… Ash Fure, Laurel Halo, Pioneer Works Review: Kronos Quartet “ZonelyHearts” Kronos Quartet is an ensemble that needs little introduction — the San Francisco-based group recentl… CMC Centrediscs, Delia Derbyshire, Kronos Quartet, Nicole Lizée 5 Questions to José Martínez (composer) José Martínez has charted numerous routes through tradition and storytelling by leaning into abstrac… Alejandro González Puche, HOCKET, Hocket Duo, Jordan Walsh, José Martínez, Laura Moreno, Leymis Bolaños, Ma Zhenghong, May Romero Quiñonez, New Focus Recordings, Sara Martínez 5 Questions to Ali Balighi (composer) Composer, electroacoustic musician, and educator Ali Balighi seems most comfortable in the unstable… Ali Balighi, Post Orientalism Music ListN Up Playlist: Mari Esabel Valverde (June 18, 2026) Mari Esabel Valverde is an award-winning transgender Mexican-American composer in steady demand in t… 21V, Amir Rabiyah, Andrew Yee, California All-State Choir, Katherine FitzGibbon, Mari Esabel Valverde, Melissa Attebury, Melissa Dunphy, Resonance Ensemble, SACRA/PROFANA, Saunder Choi, Seattle Pro Musica, Tove Ditlevsen, Trinity Choir Microtonality and Virtuosity Collide on Ekmeles’ “Nonsongs” It isn’t often that performers approach microtonal music armed only with a set of tuning forks and t… Charlotte Mundy, Ekmeles, Elisa Sutherland, George Lewis, Iwo Jedynecki, Jeffrey Gavett, Katherine Balch, New Focus Recordings, Plainsound, Steven Hrycelak, Timothy Parsons, Tomás Cruz, Wolfgang von Schweinitz Danielle Jagelski and JL Marlor Compose America In the 250th anniversary of the United States, we might expect programming that focuses on the Found… Amy Beach, Danielle Jagelski, Erin Schwab, Florence Price, JL Marlor, Joan Tower, Michelle Rofrano, Nadia Boulanger, PROTESTRA, Recomposing America, Valerie Coleman On “Metamorfosis,” Nnux Mines Transformative Feminine Power Metamorfosis opens with a yell.

In “Tormentas,” a deity loosely based on the Aztec goddess of earth… Ana E. López, AVAJI, Matt Marks Impact Fund, Nnux, Paulina Parga Music, Mysticism, and Quiet Radicalism in Wild Up’s “The Interior Castle” In a world of constant connectivity, what do we gain from looking within? Wild Up’s Jun.

6 program,… Christopher Rountree, Eliza Bagg, Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Hildegard von Bingen, Isabella Leonarda, M. A.

Tiesenga, REDCAT, Wild Up Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe Crafts Sonic Cinema on “Manifestations in the Shadow of an Uncertain Land” Sound artist, composer, and visual creator Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe has developed a singular artistic… Charmaine Lee, Damon Locks, Kou Records, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe ListN Up Playlist: Lia Kohl (June 4, 2026) Lia Kohl is a composer and sound artist based in Chicago.

Her wide-ranging practice includes composi… Alain Peters, Egil Kalmen, Floating Points, FRANKIE & Battle-ax, James Holden, Lia Kohl, Maalem Mahmoud Guinia, Macie Stewart, Whitney Johnson Reg Bloor Steps Up to the Podium for the NYC Return of Glenn Branca’s Symphony No. 13 When Glenn Branca’s Symphony No. 13 (“Hallucination City”) for 100 Guitars was first performed at th… Glenn Branca, Glenn Branca Ensemble, Lincoln Center, Reg Bloor Char Jeré and Guests Mold Time and Space in “Planet/Tear” “A shifting environment of unstable systems … Signals emerge, overlap, and dissolve, forming a tempo… Braxton, C.

Spencer Yeh, Char Jeré, Maggie Boyd, Michael Candy, pap souleye fall, Rena Anakwe, Roulette, Roulette Intermedium Colgate Is Not Toothpaste: On Classical Music, Art Music, and the Theft of a Category I grew up in Bogotá in the late ‘80s. Toothpaste was no longer called “toothpaste” — it was Colgate.

art music, Bad Bunny, classical music, Nirvana 5 Questions to TellTale Opera Theatre In the landscape of modern opera performance, everyone seems to be fighting an uphill battle.

Compos… Ben Ross, Elisheva Pront, Magdelena Ensemble, Meg Huskin, Michael Mills, Mira Fu-en Huang, TellTale Opera Theatre For Lazyhorse, Fragments of Ideas are Opportunities for Transformation There’s often a moment in a group improvisation where musicians let go of trying to make sense of ea… Andy Meyerson, Mali Obomsawin, Miriam Elhajli, Raven Chacon, Steve Hammond, The Living Earth Show, Travis Andrews ListN Up Playlist: Sanaya Ardeshir (May 21, 2026) Sanaya Ardeshir (she/her) is an Indian producer and composer, with a parallel practice in electronic… BBC Symphony Orchestra, Charles Mingus, Dimlite, Gustav Holst, Mount Kimbie, Nala Sinephro, Nils Frahm, Sanaya Ardeshir, Sandunes, Susanna Mälkki, Suzanne Ciani The Substance of Silence on TAK Ensemble’s “Between the Air” Though air hangs all around us, it’s usually imperceptible.

But when it moves, we hear it. A gale ru… Bethany Younge, Eric Wubbels, Golnaz Shariatzadeh, Lewis Nielson, TAK Ensemble, Tyshawn Sorey The Ecstatic Experience of Dig That Treasure! Festival 2026 I don’t think I have ever seen the audience at Cafe Oto so animated and so joyful as they were on th… Abul Mogard, Ailís Ní Ríain, Cafe OTO, Canab Marwo, Dig That Treasure!

Festival, DNA? AND? , Eric Chenaux, Fievel Is Glauque, Harry Górski-Brown, IKLECTIK Art Lab, Jennifer Walshe, Lawrence Casserley, Michelle Hromin, Mohammad Syfkhan, Rafael Anton Irisarri, standard issue, Tilly Coulton As the label of American Composers Forum, innova® Recordings serves as a home for visionary and genre-defying creative music.

At once vast and intimate, Melting Planets draws the listener into an immersive soundworld where nature behaves in unexpected ways: drops of rain might sound like a fusion of glassy, metal, wooden, plastic, and electric pops, while gravity shifts in multiple directions, causing bursts of sound to appear, vanish, and continuously descend into the unknown.

The album is the result of two years of musical and extramusical dialogue between three composers/improvisers – Sivan Cohen Elias (sound instruments/ objects, voice, live electronics), Lauren Siess (viola, objects, no-input mixer), and Cole Blouin (electric guitar, objects). Their collaboration culminated in this recording, artistically directed and produced by Sivan Cohen Elias.

The album embraces dynamic, visceral music, conceptualized as musical “scenes” set in fictional worlds undergoing surreal ecological collapse. Within these apocalyptic environments, new hybrid lifeforms begin to emerge. The trio imagined what might survive in an environment defined by constant, extreme transformations – shifting from extreme heat to deep freezes, from dryness to overwhelming humidity.

They explored the evolution of a new physics and the struggles for survival that might emerge in such a world. What kinds of creatures would exist? They pictured hybrids of disproportionate, absurd body parts, and speculated on those creatures’ behaviors and interactions.

In so doing, the trio discovered the absurdity of this world – its pain, its humor, its complexity, its hope, and its cycles. On the sonic level, the album presents an intricate, electronic-heavy sound-world that deliberately defies genre classification. The imagery emerged through an ongoing dialogue with their collection of instruments and sound-making devices, which were blended in real-time using digital sound processing.

The trio fused elements of classical, multicultural, and electronic instruments with unconventional objects (a complete list is below), while the live electronic manipulations transformed them into immersive, experiential sounds – inviting the listener to perceive the sound itself almost as a physical body, ensuring that the sound had the feeling of melting.

One section of the album focuses on a drowning creature – a three-track piece that demands active listening, such that the listener can fully experience the creature’s voice, actions, emotions, and surroundings. It begins with a kazoo and viola mirroring each other in long, bending tones, recalling a desperate cry. Meanwhile, birdlike sounds emerge from electronic manipulations of a bowed fishing line tied around the guitar strings.

As the piece unfolds, bubbling water and thick mud are sonically conjured through vibrating devices and a no-input mixer, gradually transforming into a soundscape of melting and drowning. The section culminates in a visceral, choral-like tutti performed on flute piccolo, bowed electric guitar, and viola. The trio began improvising together in late 2021.

In the summer of 2022, just before Siess left for composition studies in Dresden, Germany, and Cohen Elias departed for a teaching position at the University of Minnesota, they decided to record an album. From that session, one track stood out—Scoby Song—the only piece from that recording to make it onto the album.

Its name reflects its role as a foundational element, a kind of starter culture for the material they continued to develop remotely over the following year. Throughout discussions, the trio kept returning to ideas of sonic walls, fermentation, unknown cultural sound, and the concept of sound melting.

The long, frozen chord at the end of Scoby Song, along with the use of the kazoo and saxophone mouthpiece as tools for personification, became central motifs that evolved further as they worked towards the second recording session.

In the summer of 2023, the trio members reunited in NYC and rehearsed at Studio Fog Expanse, Cole’s recording and production space in Ridgewood, Queens, where they continued developing sonic “scenes” by forming a sequence of specified actions and reflected images while improvising the details, nuances, and musical flow.

Over two intense days at Greyfade Studio, in Mount Vernon, New York, they recorded multiple takes of those scenes, along with free improvisations working in the same sonic atmospheres, and techniques. This session generated a wealth of material, which Cohen Elias later sorted, selected, and edited.

Working with the phenomenal engineer Joseph Branciforte during postproduction – recording, mixing, and mastering – brought the album to life with the exact crispness, clarity, and immersive quality Cohen Elias had envisioned. Consolation is a song cycle composed by Samn Johnson for vocalist Tis Kaoru Zamler-Carhart, setting Latin poetry from Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy.

It features layers of Tis’s voice accompanied by Samn’s electronics and instrumental recordings. Boethius wrote the Consolation in 524 AD while awaiting execution after his political downfall. He is visited in prison by the feminine allegorical character of Philosophy.

Through their imagined dialogue, it is apparent that both characters are in fact himself, both male and female, both free and captive, facing his own questions about his life choices: money, fame, power—did they make him happy? Consolation—the album—has been described by composer and music critic Alex Temple as “wildly polystylistic,” but the same can perhaps be said of Boethius’s original.

Its mix of poetry and prose carried ancient readers along in the visceral flow of Latin meter, careening between intellectual elegance and sheer terror. Samn’s music hews closely to the maelstrom of Boethius’s emotions, but renders it with different devices. Tis’s voice, the backbone of the album, is pushed to virtuosic limits of range and timbre, spanning over four octaves with an astonishing array of colors and tuning systems.

Interviewed by WMBR radio about Samn’s writing for the trans nonbinary voice, Tis says: Around Tis’s voice, Samn’s electronic orchestra deploys echoes of Renaissance polyphony alongside 808 kick drums and synthesizers, flashes of romanticism, and washes of ambience. Early tuning systems—from Just Intonation to Meantone temperaments—are omnipresent in Samn’s music.

For Boethius, who was also a music theorist, these would have not only been shimmering worlds of musical color, but allegories for how the cosmos is ordered. Perhaps the same is ultimately true for Samn, and is part of what binds him to Boethius across the centuries. Describing this connection, Samn says, “When I first read the Consolation, it immediately drew me in.

The practical philosophy felt so accessible, and the huge range of emotion and poetic rhythm was an exciting challenge to adapt. I knew this would push me to draw on a similar range of musical styles, and writing for Tis, whose voice transcends the gendered categories of classical vocal music, felt perfectly aligned with this aim. It’s also a vehicle to explore my religious and spiritual thoughts.

We know from other sources that Boethius was a Christian, yet he does not evoke explicitly Christian concepts in his Consolation, instead describing God in the terms of neoplatonic philosophy. Whatever his intent may have been, I find this lack of doctrine to impart an appealing universality to his message, and is part of what makes me want to adapt it for the world I live in.

In this text, written from prison, I find something transcendent and liberatory. ” Samn Johnson(he/they) is a composer, producer, and historical linguist. Their work often harnesses research on acoustics and historical phonology to set texts in ancient languages like Latin, Old English, Hittite, and Gothic.

Samn has written for a range of performers including Chromic Duo, Righteous GIRLS, and harpsichordist Nathan Mondry. His latest two recordings, both self-released, are Ageless Sea (2022), for chamber choir, chamber orchestra, electronics, and rock band, and First Book for Piano (2022), performing his own piano works. Samn is also half of the synth pop duo Acraea, together with Leora Mandel.

He holds degrees in composition from the University of Michigan and NYU, and has taken courses in Indo-European historical linguistics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Samn lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where this album was recorded. ( www.

samnjohnsonmusic. com</…) Equal parts surreal and fantastic, Goldfeather’s new album, Change , leaps forward into a dynamic and effervescent sound world. Texturally dense and poetically resonant, the closest comparison could be if Laurie Anderson decided to make a Hyperpop album.

The record ricochets between harsh, in-your-face electronics to beautifully rich orchestration, relaying a deeply visceral story along the way. Each song has a catchy melody that is underscored by unusual vocal and electronic effects and unpredictable key and time signature changes. Change is an album that tells the story of volatile emotions, loss, and growth within an unraveling relationship.

It boomerangs from feelings ranging from insecurity, helplessness, despair, anxiety, rage, remorse, and at the end, the painfully ecstatic joy of a protagonist who has faced her demons and rooted herself in resilience. Goldfeather is an experimental pop band based out of New York City.

The whimsical brainchild of Sarah Goldfeather and Mike Tierney, Goldfeather’s music has been described as “a nightmare funhouse-mirror take on Carly Rae Jepson-style upbeat pop [that is] deeply disconcerting and outrageously fun” (National Sawdust Log), “full of light and life” (The Current, Minnesota Public Radio), and “poignant…striking and laudable” (The Deli Magazine).

Sarah and Mike have led rich and eclectic musical careers that inform their music. Sarah is currently the violinist for Lincoln Center Theater’s Production of Coastal Starlight and was the 2019-2020 violin chair for Tony-winning and Grammy-nominated Broadway production of Oklahoma!.

She has made television appearances including The Tonight Show, The Today Show, The 2019 Tony Awards, has been a featured artist in series across the US and Europe, including TEDxMET, and has performed with notable artists such as Courtney Love, Lizzo, Ronnie Spector, and Kimbra.

She is the artistic director of the ensemble Exceptet and a composer of chamber works commissioned by ETHEL quartet, Contemporaneous, pianist Timo Andres, and more. Mike is a three-time Grammy-nominated audio engineer and producer based in Brooklyn who has worked with a range of artists across genres, including Steve Reich, Medeski Martin & Wood; Stephen Stills; Julia Wolfe; Pharaoh Sanders; Judy Collins; and Alarm Will Sound.

He currently works out of his studio, Shiny Things Studio. Help us champion artists and build a thriving musical future.