Rhode Island Foundation offers $30,000 grants to local composers

MacColl Johnson Fellowships will give three Rhode Island composers the means to advance their craft and boost the state’s cultural life.

Local composers who dream of having the resources to push their work to the next level have until Aug. 10 to apply for $30,000 fellowships from the Rhode Island Foundation. The grants are considered to be among the largest no-strings-attached awards available to composers in the United States.

The Foundation will award grants to three emerging or mid-career composers through its Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Fellowship Fund. The awards are intended to free them to concentrate time on the creative process, to focus on personal or professional development, to expand their body of work and to explore new directions.

“By offering the financial support these composers need in order to hone their craft we are investing in them, and in growing a sector that makes our state such a wonderful place to live,” said David N. Cicilline, president and CEO. “This assistance demonstrates the importance we put on investing in Rhode Island’s cultural life.”

Applicants must have been residents of Rhode Island for at least 12 months prior to the Aug. 10 deadline. High school students, college and graduate students who are enrolled in a degree-granting program and composers who have advanced levels of career achievement are not eligible.

Applicants will be judged on the quality of their work samples, their artistic development and their creative contribution to the arts, as well as the potential of the fellowship to advance their career.

Submissions may be of any genre of original musical composition, including chamber, choral, contemporary, electronic, experimental, jazz, opera, musical theater, symphonic and world music, among others.

Although the fellowships are unrestricted, recipients are expected to devote concentrated time to their art and to engage in activities that further their artistic growth. Examples include creating new work, training in technologies or techniques, purchasing equipment, travel, research and developing artistic endeavors.

The recipients will be selected by a panel of out-of-state jurors who are industry professionals managed by the Artist Communities Alliance. For more information about applying, visit www.artistcommunities.org.