New Music USA Announces The Thea Musgrave Performer – Composer Collaboration Grant
Endowed Gift of $250,000 from Thea Musgrave and Peter Mark to Provide 1-2 Grants/Year Through the New Music Creator Fund
Thea Musgrave, credit: Kate Mount
New Music USA is thrilled to announce a new endowed grant to support the creation of new music in the United States: The Thea Musgrave Performer – Composer Collaboration Grant, made possible through the generosity of the esteemed composer Thea Musgrave and her husband, Peter Mark.
Throughout her extraordinary career, Thea Musgrave has delighted in opportunities to collaborate closely with exceptional musicians. Musgrave and Mark’s gift of $250,000 will support composer-performer collaborations in perpetuity: more specifically, solo/duo/chamber groups of performers who are commissioning an emerging composer. Beginning in 2025, 1-2 grants of $10,000 will be distributed annually through the New Music Creator Fund, New Music USA’s program that supports individual composers and performers.
The Thea Musgrave Performer – Composer Collaboration Grant will support the development new works of around 10 minutes in length. Each $10,000 grant will be divided between the composer and the performer(s) based on the scope of the project, providing funds not only for the commissioning of the work, but also to allow for dedicated workshop time between the composer and performer(s) to enhance the strength of the collaboration.
The inaugural awardee of The Thea Musgrave Performer – Composer Collaboration Grant will be announced in tandem with the 2025 Creator Fund grantees in June. Applicants to future cycles of the New Music Creator Fund will be able to indicate their interest in being considered for this grant at the time of application. The guidelines for both the 2025 New Music Creator Fund and the Thea Musgrave Performer – Composer Collaboration Grant will be available in September 2025.
Thea Musgrave says:
“I am honored to collaborate with New Music USA to support composer-performer collaborations. It is through such collaborations that I’ve been encouraged to experiment and create works that are deeply personal to the performers I work with; and in turn, my works have benefitted greatly from the expertise and knowledge that the players bring to the collaborative process. We are establishing this new grant for New Music USA to ensure that future generations of composers and performers can experience these rich collaborations, with have been exceptionally meaningful to me throughout my career.”
Kate Dreyfuss, Marc Giosi, and Scott Winship, Co-Interim Executive Directors of New Music USA, share:
“Collaboration is a central element of our New Music Creator Fund, and we could not be more grateful to Thea Musgrave and Peter Mark for their generosity to ensure that emerging composers and performers have the time, space, and funds to dedicate to the collaborative process. We are excited to experience the new works and collaborative relationships that come to fruition thanks to this extraordinary gift.”
About Thea Musgrave
Born in 1928, and still composing music almost a century later, Thea Musgrave is a musical icon. Over a remarkable international career, Thea has created a body of work bursting with energy, ready to leap off the page and seize our imagination. Her music abounds with such style and sophistication, constantly asking fresh and daring questions of musical forms and traditions. She lures us in by suffusing her music with so much of the world we know, drawing in particular on paintings, poems, myths and her Scottish heritage as the starting point for so many of her musical voyages.
She has long been beguiled by the inherent theatre of the concert hall, compelling soloists and ensembles to assume new formations, making audiences think anew about what we are witnessing onstage – and our part in it. This was evident in her thrilling Clarinet Concerto, proudly commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1969. In recognition of her remarkable artistry and achievements, Thea has received many significant awards including two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Ivors Classical Music Award 2018, and The Queen’s Medal for Music. She was awarded a CBE on the Queen’s New Year’s Honour List in 2002, as well as Honorary Membership in the RPS. In February 2025, Thea’s opera Mary, Queen of Scots was newly staged by the English National Opera to packed houses and much critical acclaim. We invite performers and audiences to delve into the extraordinary canon she has gifted us, teeming with treasure: athletic and adventurous for its players; atmospheric, suspenseful and cinematic for its listeners.
To discover more, visit the dedicated page on the website of her publisher Novello & Co and Chester Music, part of Wise Music Group, which features her complete repertoire, details of key works, her biography and career highlights, and a short film of Thea talking about her music. Her website is theamusgrave.com.
About Peter Mark
Peter Mark is a renowned conductor, viola player, and teacher. For over 35 years, he conducted the Virginia Opera where he was also Founding Artistic and General Director. In this role, leading over 100 productions, he conducted the US premiere of Thea Musgrave’s opera Mary, Queen of Scots and the world premiere of her opera A Christmas Carol, both of which he has recorded. He subsequently conducted the forces of the Royal Opera at Sadler’s Wells in the European premiere of the work and later conducted the world premiere of Thea’s opera Simón Bolívar, which was excerpted for the Proms. He has conducted on five continents, and works extensively as an opera coach with singers around the globe live and on Zoom with his unique OperaVoiceBodyWork.com.
Peter began his career as an eminent viola player, and toured extensively throughout Europe, South America, and the UK as a soloist. He performed as Principal with Chicago Lyric Opera, Assistant Principal at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he met visiting professor Thea Musgrave. They were married in 1971 in London. In 1973, Thea wrote her Viola Concerto for Peter which he premiered that year at the BBC Proms with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Thea conducting.
About New Music USA
New Music USA is a national non-profit organization dedicated to advancing new music in all its forms. Our mission is to nurture a vibrant and inclusive community for artists and listeners by supporting the creation, performance, and appreciation of new music throughout the United States. Through responsive grant-making; skill-building; mentorship and convenings for creators from all backgrounds; and platforms designed to connect music-makers with organizations and their audiences, New Music USA works to ensure a thriving, connected, and equitable ecosystem for the music of our time. newmusicusa.org
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