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General Support Program

General Support Program

2026 Preliminary Round Guidelines

About the Program

The General Support Program provides funding for organizations with a history of substantial commitment to contemporary American concert music, jazz, or both with plans to continue that commitment. Unrestricted grants through this program are available for performing ensembles, presenters, music service organizations, and record companies whose artistic excellence and impact encourages and improves public knowledge and appreciation of contemporary concert music and contemporary jazz by American composers.

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Eligibility

Who is eligible?

Eligible applicants must meet the following requirements at the time of application:

  • A minimum of 2 years of programming history (or, for record companies, release history)
  • 501(c)(3) non-profit status (or foreign equivalent), or fiscal sponsorship from an organization with 501(c)(3) non-profit status
    • For record companies only: 501(c)(3) status (or foreign equivalent) is required for the General Support Program; for funding opportunities for commercial record companies, please see our Project Support Program.
  • Operations conducted at a professional level
  • Substantial multi-year commitment to contemporary American concert music, jazz, or both

Eligible types of organizations include:

  • Ballet/dance
  • Chamber Ensemble
  • Chamber Orchestra
  • Choral or Vocal
  • Festival
  • Jazz Ensemble
  • Library/archive
  • Music service organization
  • Opera
  • Orchestra
  • Presenter
  • Professional Development
  • Radio/TV
  • Record company

What is eligible?

For each cycle, activity must occur between September of the current year and August of the following year to be considered eligible for support. The Support Year for the current cycle is September 1, 2026 to August 31, 2027.

Eligible activity must include or support music that meets all of the following criteria:

  • Contemporary: For the Fund’s purposes, music composed within the last 40 years is considered contemporary. For jazz submissions, only original works or substantially original, non-derivative arrangements composed within the last 40 years are considered contemporary.
  • American: 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.
  • Concert Music or Jazz: 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. For jazz submissions, the music must include improvisation; applications featuring through-composed works without improvisation will be evaluated with concert music applications if otherwise eligible.

Eligible types of activity include:

  • Live music performances
  • Recordings and/or live streams
  • Dance or theater performances with live music
  • Sound installations
  • Professional development programs
  • Artist-in-residence programs
  • Radio/podcast programs
  • Artist support programs
  • Journalism/criticism
  • Library/archive programs

What is not eligible?

The following types of activity are not considered eligible for support through this program:

  • Programming outside of contemporary American concert music or contemporary American jazz, including commercial, pops, folk, Broadway-style musical theater, sacred, holiday, and traditional concert band music.
  • Dance or theater performances without live music
  • Music publishing projects
  • Student ensembles
  • Volunteer, community, and amateur ensembles
  • K-12 or collegiate educational activity
  • Composer commissioning fees or honoraria
  • Competitions
  • Artist residencies/retreats
  • Endowment funds
  • Capital projects
  • Capacity building

If your season includes activity that doesn’t strictly meet eligibility requirements, but you feel would help demonstrate your organization’s commitment to contemporary American concert music, jazz, or both, please contact our Grants Team for advice.

Funding Provisions

In general, grants will range between $2,000 and $20,000, although larger grants may be awarded to larger organizations with an extraordinary commitment to contemporary American concert music, jazz, or both. The Fund does not award grants larger than the amount requested by the applicant.

Applicants should be aware that support in one year does not imply continuation of that support in subsequent years.

How to Apply

For new applicants:

You will need to submit an account request. Staff will assess your organization’s eligibility and only organizations that are considered eligible will receive account approval. Staff may reach out via email with eligibility questions. Please allow up to 5 business days for your account status to be determined.

The last day to submit an account request for the current cycle will be Friday, April 24, 2026.

Once you have an account, you will need to set up an organization profile. More information about organization profile set-up and management can be found here.

Organization profiles are limited to one per organization. If you do not know whether your organization already has a profile, or know that your organization has applied for funding in the past but do not have access to login credentials, please contact our Grants Team.

For returning applicants:

Log in to your user account here. If you are a member of multiple organizations, select the organization for which you wish to begin an application. Then click on the "Apply Now" button at the top of this page to begin the online application process.

For all applicants:

All applicants must provide the following information in their organization profile prior to the preliminary round deadline. This information will be included and reviewed as part of your application.

  • Organization Name
  • CEO (Chief Executive Officer (or equivalent) of Organization)
  • Date Founded
  • Address
  • Website & social media links
  • Financial information*
    • For organizations with 501(c)(3) non-profit status, upload a copy of the IRS determination letter confirming tax exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
    • For non-profit organizations not based in the United States, upload a letter from a lawyer in the home jurisdiction of the organization confirming its equivalence to a publicly funded U.S. 501(c)(3) organization in lieu of an IRS determination letter.
    • For organizations applying with a fiscal sponsor, select your fiscal sponsor from the drop-down list and upload proof of fiscal sponsorship in the form of a letter or signed sponsorship agreement. If you do not see your fiscal sponsor in the drop-down list, please contact our Grants Team.

*Please note that payment and banking information is not required in advance of the application deadline and will never be visible as part of your application.

The Application

Please note: It is not necessary to complete the application in one session. The system will periodically save a draft of your application, however, please save your work often using the save button to avoid potential loss of progress.

The following is a description of the application. Fields are presented in the order in which they appear in the application form with instructions and advice for each item. 

Type of organization

Select the organization type that best describes your organization from the dropdown list. The options are as follows:

  • Ballet/dance
  • Chamber Ensemble
  • Chamber Orchestra
  • Choral or Vocal
  • Festival
  • Jazz Ensemble
  • Library/archive
  • Music service organization
  • Opera
  • Orchestra
  • Presenter
  • Professional Development
  • Radio/TV
  • Record company
Requested amount

Enter the amount of funding requested for your organization’s upcoming season, in US Dollars. In general, the Fund does not recommend that organizations ask for more than 30% of their season operating expenses.

Application checkboxes

Check all statements that apply to your application.

  • The proposed activity includes live music and/or recordings
  • The proposed activity includes staged or other visual elements
  • The majority of proposed programming or activity includes contemporary jazz
  • The proposed activity includes touring
  • The proposed activity includes work with composers that are new to the applicant
  • The proposed activity includes premieres
Number of concerts/primary activities projected for support period

Enter the number of concerts or other primary activity projected for the support period and identify the type of activity. For example:

  • 24 concerts
  • 40 albums
  • 20 workshops
  • 3 conferences

Please only provide information related to your organization’s primary activity. Please do not combine activities to achieve a higher number or list multiple types of activity in this field.

Narrative summary

Provide a general description of your organization’s fundable activities and any other significant points to make your case for support. (2,000 characters maximum)

  • Please be specific, but succinct.
  • Bullet points or similar formatting are highly recommended.
Support season activity highlights

List your most compelling activity highlights for the upcoming season. (1,500 characters maximum)

  • Please include titles of works, composers, and location(s) related to the listed performances and/or programmatic activity, as applicable.
  • Highlighted activity should involve contemporary American concert music and/or jazz.
  • Bullet points or similar formatting are highly recommended.
Previous two season highlights

List your most compelling activity highlights from the past two seasons. (1,500 characters maximum)

  • Please include titles of works, composers, location(s), and audience data related to the listed performances and/or programmatic activity, as applicable.
  • Highlighted activity should involve contemporary American concert music and/or jazz.
  • Bullet points or similar formatting are highly recommended.
Key artistic personnel, leadership, and/or partners

List up to 10 of your organization’s most important artistic leaders, personnel, and/or partners. (1,500 characters maximum)

  • Artistic personnel can be ensemble members and/or key administrative or artistic directors in the case of presenting organizations.
  • Please provide links to websites and/or bios as available.
  • Bullet points or similar formatting are highly recommended.

IMPORTANT: You are responsible for complying with all legal and contractual requirements that may apply to the creation of your materials. The Aaron Copland Fund for Music hereby disclaims all legal responsibility in connection with your submissions. In case of questions, consult your legal advisor.

Review Procedures

Applications are reviewed by panels of independent peers from the contemporary American music field. Panelists are engaged to review applications that align with their area of expertise. In order to ensure a fair review process, the Fund does not release the names of current or past panelists.

The following criteria will be applied in evaluating preliminary round proposals:

  • Quality of the eligible repertoire and creativity of programming
  • Artistic quality of personnel, partners, and leadership and anticipated level of execution of proposed programming
  • Feasibility of the season
  • Demonstrated commitment to contemporary American music on a multi-season basis
  • Geographic location of applicant organization and/or upcoming performances
  • Impact and audience engagement

Application Cycle & Deadlines

All applicants interested in applying for support through the General Support Program must submit a preliminary application. Full applications in the Main Round will only be accepted from invited applicants; no other applications will be considered.

  • Preliminary Round application deadline: April 30, 2026
  • Preliminary Round decision deadline: July 1, 2026
  • Main Round application deadline: August 13, 2026

All deadlines are at 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the given date.

Contact & FAQs

For questions about this program, we encourage applicants to first consult our Frequently Asked Questions page. If a question is not answered there, please contact our Grants Team using our contact form or one of the methods below.

E-mail: onlinegrants@coplandfund.org
Phone: 212-461-6956 (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET)

Updated: October 28, 2025

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