FAQs

Music by composers with U.S. citizenship, wherever they may live, as well as non-citizen composers who have lived and worked in the U.S. and its territories for a significant period.

For the Fund’s purposes, concert music includes opera, orchestral and chamber music for instrumental and/or vocal ensembles, as well as experimental genres and similar formats.

Yes, the Fund supports contemporary American jazz. For jazz submissions, the music must contain improvisation and only original works or substantially original, non-derivative arrangements composed within the last 40 years are considered contemporary.

Holiday and pops programming is not eligible for support, however, such programming will not have an adverse effect on your application if there is sufficient eligible contemporary concert music activity throughout your season.

No, Broadway-style musical theater projects are generally not supported. Opera and dance projects involving live performances of contemporary concert music are supported.

Yes, provided you obtain fiscal sponsorship from a non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status. Be sure to review program guidelines and application instructions to submit proper documentation.

No, individuals are not eligible to apply for support through the Fund’s programs, with or without a fiscal sponsor. Individual artists are encouraged to work with the organization(s) involved with their project which may be eligible to submit an application for support for that project.

Individuals may find other grant opportunities on Candid.

The General Support and Project Support Programs provide funding for activity that occurs between September of the current year through August of the next year. The timing of the activity in relation to application deadlines or award announcements is not considered so long as it takes place during the stated support year window.

Yes! Non-profit and fiscally sponsored organizations with eligible activity throughout the United States and internationally are welcome to apply for support. For examples of the Fund's geographic breadth of support, please see our past grants page.

Activities involving school-age students, student ensembles, or credit-bearing university activities are not eligible for support through any of the Fund's programs. Educational institutions may apply for support as presenters for activities such as faculty recital series and concert presentations featuring professional musicians.

Youth choruses that perform contemporary concert music specifically composed for children’s voices may be considered. Please contact our Grants Team for more information.

Organizations may also apply for support for professional development and training activities that meet all other eligibility criteria.

For the purposes of our grant programs, professional development activity is a program or initiative for young, emerging, or other professional musicians, including composers. These types of activities may include mentorship or training, performance opportunities, or other activities that benefit the professional attendee(s) in gaining experience or otherwise building their career(s).

Please note that the Fund does not provide support for individuals or members of an organization to attend professional development programs or activities. 

Due to the competitive nature of the Fund’s grant programs, community, volunteer, and amateur ensembles are generally not competitive for support. For specific inquiries, please contact our Grants Team.

The Fund does not provide grants for commissioning fees. In the case of consortium projects, contact our Grants Team with your specific details.

No. Organizations may apply to either the General Support Program or the Project Support Program, but not both in the same year. Applicants are not required to apply to the same program every year, but may only apply to one program per year.

If your organization has a history of substantial commitment to contemporary American concert music or jazz and plans to continue that commitment, we recommend applying for support through the General Support Program.

If your organization does not typically engage in substantial activity involving or supporting contemporary American music but has an upcoming program or project featuring eligible activity, we recommend applying for support through the Project Support Program.

If you forgot your password, you can reset it using the email address tied to your account here.

If you no longer have access to the email address associated with your account, please contact our Grants Team for support.

Organization profiles contain an organization’s basic information, applications, and financial information. An organization profile is required to apply to the Fund's grant programs.

Each organization is limited to one profile, but each profile may have any number of member accounts contribute to its management. Conversely, a single user account can be a member of multiple organization profiles (ex. a freelance grant writer who works for multiple organizations).

If your organization has applied for funding from the Fund in 2024 or earlier, you likely already have an organization profile. If you are not sure if your organization already has a profile, or if you no longer have access to login credentials for your organization's old account, please contact our Grants Team for support.

Reminder: Organization profiles are limited to one per organization.

Yes, most text fields in the applications will have hard character limits. These limits will be stated in program guidelines as well as in the application form itself. Character limits are not intended as recommendations for content length; applicants are not required to meet the maximum character counts for any text field.

No. The Fund requires that all organizations that request funding for performance and/or recording activity submit audio files as specified in the guidelines. You may submit video links in addition to uploading audio files only if proposed activity includes essential visual elements.

No, the system only supports MP3 files. Each upload may not exceed 32 MB.

Yes, all applicants are required to use the budget template provided in the program guidelines.

Organizational budgets refer to income and expense reports and must be provided using the budget template provided in the program guidelines; audited financial statements refer to statements, often prepared by an accountant and sometimes audited, that reflect a more complete picture of an organization's financial details, including statements of activity, cash flow, balance sheets, and accompanying notes. 

We understand that not every organization is required to have audited financial statements; however, if your organization has one for any of the past three fiscal years, you are required to submit the latest one. These requirements vary based on organizational budget size, and requirements vary from state to state.

Generally speaking, donations of services, including volunteer time and performances, are not legally considered in-kind donations, so they should not be reflected in your organizational or project budgets. Should you receive donations of material goods (e.g. physical scores, stage props, etc.) that are relevant to your application, please include them in the appropriate category.

Pro bono contributions of time or expertise can be included in the Notes section of the budget template if you feel this will improve your application.

The Fund rarely awards the full requested amount and will never award more than the total requested amount. In general, we recommend that organizations not request more than 30% of their season or project expenses, as applicable.

The Fund has seen a significant increase in total applicant numbers across all grant programs over the past several years, resulting in more competitive application pools. We anticipate that the inaugural cycles for the General Support and Project Support Programs will remain similarly competitive.

In order to ensure a fair review process, the Fund does not release the names of the panelists.

For the General Support and Project Support Programs, the Fund selects peer panelists who are otherwise unaffiliated with the Fund to adjudicate applications. Each cycle, professionals with a wide variety of experience and expertise are selected as panelists in an effort to represent the contemporary music field at large.

The Fund also works with an independent jazz advisor who organizes peer panels for jazz applicantions in each of the Fund’s grant programs.

Our programs are very competitive; unfortunately, each year many worthy projects cannot be funded simply because they exceed our available resources. The Fund does not offer feedback for declined proposals.

For text credits, the preferred language is: “Funded in part by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.”

Logos and additional information can be found here.

Due to the nature of the new two-round process, deadlines will fall at different times of the year compared to our Performance, Recording, and Supplemental programs. In general, the General Support Program will have a preliminary round deadline in late April and the Project Support Program will have a preliminary round deadline in late July. For more information about program timelines, please review the guidelines.

If you know your current password, log in and click on "My Account" on the upper-right hand corner of the page, then click the "Edit" tab to update your information. Please note that you will need to input your current password in the appropriate field in order to change the email address or password for your account.

If you forgot your password, please use the "Reset your password" page to change your password using your email address.

If you no longer have access to the inbox associated with your account, please contact our Grants Team for support.

Both foundations fund contemporary concert music, use the same grant application software, and contract the same support staff. They are otherwise discrete organizations with different leadership and different funding priorities.