ACMP’s annual Chamber Music Workshop and Community Music grant cycle is open!

Grant cycle opened: September 17, 2025

Deadline: Friday, October 17 at 11:59pm ET

Award notification: December 22, 2025

We shifted the application process earlier in order than in previous years in order to be able to support programs in the whole 2026 calendar year and the 2026/27 academic year (rather than only events happening after March 15.) Any past grantees who already received funding for an early January through mid-March 2026 workshop or community program last year can sit this cycle out and apply for support for 2027 calendar year or 2027/28 academic year programs at this time next year.

Beyond the timeline, we made some substantive changes to the program’s eligibility criteria:

• ACMP grants are for programs serving adult amateur musicians. Intergenerational programs including youth alongside adult amateurs are also eligible for support
• Eligible organizations must have an annual operating budget of $500,000 USD or less
• Programs with an educational component are eligible for support. Please apply through one of ACMP’s rolling grants for Play-Ins or other chamber music experiences that do not involve coaching

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Over the 2024/2025 season, the board and staff of ACMP engaged in a strategic planning process. As a small nonprofit and the world’s only foundation supporting adult amateur chamber music, we made the difficult decision, at least for the next few years, to focus our Chamber Music Workshops and Community Music grant program on programs serving adult amateurs. Only programs open to adult amateur musicians, either exclusively or alongside children and youth, will be eligible for support in this grant cycle.

While we recognize the importance of chamber music education for children and youth, there are other available funding sources for such programs. We pride ourselves on our efficiency and ability to dedicate half of our annual operating budget to philanthropy. Over the past few grant cycles we have been getting a surplus of applications and have consequently only been able to give quite small grants. We would like to provide larger and more impactful grants to grantees who further ACMP’s mission by providing invaluable opportunities to adult amateur chamber musicians.

Along those lines, we want ACMP Foundation grants to have a more significant impact on small organizations and individuals who might not otherwise be able to run their programs without ACMP support. To that end, we have limited eligibility to individuals or organizations with an annual operating budget of $500,000 USD or less. 

The good news: we have increased the maximum request amount to $5000 again. While we may not be able to give the full amount to many programs, our goal is to give larger grants.

One other change: the focus of this grant is on programs with an educational component. If your program is a Play-In or other chamber music experience that does not involve coaching, please apply for support from ACMP through our other rolling applications, such as the Play-In grant.

Please read the new guidelines carefully before applying

Attendance is not required, but if you are available on Thursday, September 25 at 1pm Eastern time, please attend our online Grant Information Session.

Register for the ACMP Grant Information Session

If you are unable to attend, the video from this session will be posted on the guidelines page within one week.

If you still have questions after reading the guidelines, looking over the application and watching the Grant Information Session, please email Executive Director Stephanie Griffin at sgriffin@acmp.net.