2024 Grants

The 2024 WPA Performance Grant program is currently under re-evaluation. Please check back for new guidelines.

Congratulations to the 2023 Performance Grant Recipients

Professional Ensembles:
Boston Landmarks Orchestra
Worthington Chamber Orchestra (Ohio)

Community Ensembles:
Horizon Ensemble (Boston, MA)
Seattle Philharmonic

Youth Ensemble:
Denver Young Artists Orchestra

You can read more about them here.

2022-2023 Performance Grant Program

Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy has been proud to provide Performance Grants in the U.S. since 2012, helping hundreds of community, professional, and youth orchestras across the country perform works by historic and contemporary women composers.  The impact of these grants has been heard from coast to coast, by small and large ensembles, in rural and urban communities, in live, broadcast and streamed performances.  

Our original intent with this grant program was to encourage more performances of works by women composers by large ensembles.  In revising it, we decided that instead of impacting single concerts, the updated program should allow us to build relationships with ensembles to help identify and facilitate opportunities for broader representation and inclusion throughout multiple concerts and concert seasons.  

As of 2022, WPA Performance Grants Program was revised to impact the long-term programming decisions in American orchestral concert programming to more accurately resemble the actual diversity found within the historical and contemporary makeup of western art music.  

These revised WPA Grants were awarded annually to a maximum of five ensembles, each of whom committed to a three-year partnership with WPA to develop an inclusive programming model that will carry throughout the commitment of the grant period and beyond. Organizations must be eager to be on the leading edge of change as the classical music community begins to reckon with the systemic inequity and racism that sits at the core of traditional programming.  

Each U.S. applicant ensemble for the program must meet the following criteria: 

  • Community, Professional, or Youth orchestras in the United States who seek to expand their repertoire, attract wider audiences, include engaging educational programming, and be a positive model of change in the classical music world.
  • Ensembles who have demonstrated an established commitment to diversity, inclusion, and representation of music composed by women and other marginalized groups (specifically racial and ethnic minorities) and desire to expand their impact are especially encouraged to apply.  
  • Each ensemble must demonstrate artistic excellence in performance.  Note: A recent audio sample is required for the grant application.
  • The organization’s artistic and administrative staff must be able to commit to a three year partnership to work directly with Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy Grant Administrator and representatives to develop short and long term goals for long term and systemic changes within their individual organizations to address the inequities that have historically been synonymous with classical music programming. 

The total award of the grant for each winning ensemble was $5,000, distributed as follows:

First Year:      $1,000

Second Year: $1,500

Third Year:     $2,500

Failure to meet outlined and agreed upon objectives at any point will mean the forfeiture of future payments.  

In addition, members of the WPA Board of Directors as well as the Grants Administrator will be available to apply their wide-ranging professional expertise to guide ensembles as they work to expand their concert repertoire, build educational programming opportunities, develop their digital impact, and strive to be on the leading edge of change in the classical music world.