Present Music to Receive National Endowment for the Arts Grant Award for ComposeMilwaukee

Milwaukee, WI – Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.

In the second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2015, the NEA will make a $10,000 award to Present Music to support ComposeMilwaukee, a new community engagement project with local composers. The NEA will make 1,023 awards totaling $74.3 million nationwide in this funding round.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one from Present Music represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality.”

ComposeMilwaukee participants collaborate to create an imaginative piece of new music. Through a series of workshops, a professional composer works with participants utilizing sounds that are meaningful to them, and guides them in the composition process. Each group of participants creates a piece that is unique to their identity and creative process.  This program engages people of various levels of musical experience and encourages them to experiment with contemporary music ideas.

Participants will perform their pieces at the inaugural ComposeMilwaukee concert on Sunday, June 7 at the Milwaukee Art Museum at 1:00 p.m.  This concert is free and open to the public. Participating organizations include Badger Meter, Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, Pieper Power Co., the Urban Ecology Center, St. John’s on the Lake, Reagan High School and a group of Milwaukee community members.  One of these compositions will also be featured at Present Music’s season finale concert, Present Music Nation on Friday, June 5 at the Hot Water Wherehouse. (Programs subject to change.)

Present Music
Present Music is Milwaukee’s internationally acclaimed new music ensemble. Celebrating over 30 years of new music, Present Music commissions, performs, records, and tours the music of living composers. In the past quarter century, more than 55 new works, by composers from around the world, have come into existence because of Present Music. Founded by Kevin Stalheim, Present Music works closely with many of the world’s most exciting and significant composers while supporting the talents of emerging voices. It nurtures the next generation of composers through its education program, the Creation Project.

Present Music is a member of the United Performing Arts Fund, which provides major financial support. This season is supported by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support provided by CAMPAC and by the generosity of foundations, corporations and individuals. PM has won the ASCAP/Chamber Music America’s Adventurous Programming Award an unprecedented six times and can be heard on nine compact disk recordings on the Argo, Albany, Aoede, Northeastern, Naxos and Innova labels.

Present Music engages artists and audiences in imaginative and provocative experiences with new music through ensemble performance, education and commissioning.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.