New Haven, CT (January 14, 2014): The New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO) is pleased to announce that two important institutions advancing new American music have awarded nationally-competitive grants to the Symphony. The Aaron Copland Fund for Music’s “Performing Ensembles Program” has provided a $6,000 grant in support of the Symphony’s February 27, 2014 Wind on the Water concert that honors composer Augusta Read Thomas’s 50th birthday and includes the world premiere of her Saxophone Concerto – Prisms of Light.  Harvard’s Fromm Foundation awarded a $12,000 grant directly to jazz composer and trombonist Christopher Brubeck for the commission of a new work to be premiered by the NHSO next season.  Both grants advance the Symphony’s reputation as a nationally prominent advocate for new music (the NHSO is also a recent winner of an ASCAP Award for Adventuresome Programming).

NHSO Executive Director Elaine Carroll remarked, “These venerable American music advocacy organizations have recognized that the Symphony is delivering on our vision of promoting a wider appreciation of American repertoire through commissions and performances that champion our musical heritage.” The NHSO is one of 16 American orchestras whose focus on the music of today was recognized by the Aaron Copland Fund while Christopher Brubeck is one of 12 composers nationally who were honored by a Fromm Music Foundation commission in 2013.

The Aaron Copland Fund for Music supports performing organizations whose artistic excellence encourages and improves public knowledge and appreciation of serious contemporary American music. The Fromm Music Foundation, founded by the late contemporary music patron Paul Fromm in the 1950s, has commissioned over 300 new compositions and funded their performances as well as hundreds of new music concerts and concert series.

For tickets to the Augusta Read Thomas premiere, or any New Haven Symphony Orchestra concert, visit us online at www.NewHavenSymphony.org