CMYS gets NEA grant

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced today that Chamber Music Yellow Springs, Inc. is one of 153 not-for-profit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Challenge America Fast-Track grant. CMYS is recommended for a $10,000 grant to support the commission of a new work for string quartet from composer Allen McCullough, to be premiered by the Daedalus Quartet as part of the CMYS subscription series, with related outreach.

In this FY 2013 funding round, the NEA received 393 eligible Challenge America Fast-Track applications, requesting a total of $3,930,000.  The NEA will award 153 Challenge America Fast-Track grants totaling $1.53 million awarded to organizations in 41 states, Washington, DC, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These include 49 first-time Arts Endowment grantees. The Challenge America Fast-Track category offers support primarily to small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.

“We are thrilled with the opportunity to share new music with the Miami Valley,” said Jane Watts, President of the board of Chamber Music Yellow Springs. “The school outreach is particularly important to us, along with supporting young composers.” Dr. Allen McCullough is an assistant professor of theory and composition at Mercer University in Georgia and is a native of Yellow Springs.

"The NEA was founded on the principle that the arts belong to all the people of the United States," said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. "We're proud that Challenge America Fast-Track grants bring more opportunities for arts engagement to underserved communities."

See the complete listing of projects recommended for Challenge America Fast-Track grant support at www.arts.gov.

Chamber Music Yellow Springs is an all-volunteer organization that has been dedicated to bringing quality music to the Miami Valley for 29 years. Internationally recognized chamber musicians play intimate concerts in the wonderful acoustics of the First Presbyterian Church in Yellow Springs four times a year. In the spring the series features a fifth concert in which emerging ensembles compete.