Dear Friends of BNMI,

This February, The Boston New Music Initiative is hosting our Leap Day fundraiser to support our upcoming third Living Music Summit. 100% of all donations directly support BNMI's program of activities. All BNMI directors and staff are volunteers.

Our goal for this year is to raise over $3,000 to support our concerts and activities for Season 15, which began this fall with the Composer Interview Series and Salon Series, and will culminate in May 2024 with our Living Music Summit. Over the course of its first fourteen seasons, BNMI has grown into an international force in fostering the creation and performance of contemporary concert music. It maintains a comprehensive focus on improving the industry by actively promoting performers and composers at all stages of their careers and reaching new and broader audiences who can discover the vast array of interesting, innovative new works being created by today’s living composers and realized by a collection of exceptionally fearless, talented performers. 

BNMI’s mission encompasses four primary activities:

• Networking and Professional Development: The Salon Series and Composer Interview Series allows composers, performers and audience members to engage directly with their peers in a welcoming and intimate environment. The Living Music Summit will provide ample opportunities both formal and informal for performers, composers and music lovers to network. The Living Music Summit will also include a workshop on writing for violin and viola, and an industry panel titled "Rewriting the Narrative," focusing on creating more opportunities for underrepresented groups in the contemporary classical world.
  
• Commissioning: BNMI has performed ten commissioned works to date by internationally-acclaimed composers, winners of our annual commissioning competition: Ghost Notes, by Panayiotis Kokoras; Labyrinth Song, by Nicola Straffelini; Altered States, by Travis Alford; After the Rain, by Lonnie Hevia; Kindling by Charles Peck; Living in Color by Alex Berko; Prisms and Mirrors by Paul Novak; On the Nature of Things by Andrew Davis; and Grooves and Whispers Book 2 by Luis Quintana.The winner of the eleventh annual competition is Yangfan Xu, whose new workwill be premiered at the Living Music Summit. BNMI is committed to continuing the tradition of commissioning composers as part of its ongoing activities, and is currently hosting the Twelfth Annual Commissioning Competition.
  
• Collaboration: In addition to working with many talented individual performers and ensembles as part of BNMI’s concert series, the organization’s scope has extended throughout New England through its participation in events outside of the concert series. The Saturday and Sunday night concerts of this year's Living Music Summit will be shared with the Cambridge Chamber Singers. BNMI’s core ensemble performed and participated in the PARMA Music Festival held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 2013 and 2014, and in the Westfield Festival of New Music in March 2014 at Westfield State University. BNMI seeks to continue expanding its mission and activities to new audiences throughout the region and beyond.  In the past BNMI has collaborated with Luminarium Dance Company, Boston Opera Collaborative, and New England based visual artists. We also participated in the first three Boston New Music Festivals.  BNMI's aim is to frequently collaborate with groups across disciplines for future seasons, including dance, film, theatre and opera.
  
• Programming: Entering our fifteenth concert season, we have programmed the works of over 250 different living composers, including over 55 world premiere performances, in venues ranging from art galleries to performer's living rooms, to large concert halls. BNMI features a core ensemble, as well as a significant list of guest artists, consisting of some of today’s most exciting young performers within the Boston area. One of our ongoing goals is to compensate these highly talented and dedicated musicians with rates on par with their abilities. BNMI is also committed to programming music from underrepresented groups such as women, trans, black, indigenous and latinx composers.
  

Our ambitious plans for future seasons are entirely dependent upon our success with fundraising events and we rely on public support in order for that to happen! If you would like to help us meet our goal, you may mail a check to the address below.

The Boston New Music Initiative, Inc. 

P.O. Box 400420

Cambridge, MA 02140

All donations between February 23 and March 4 over $20 will receive a free BNMI sticker, and all donations over $50 will receive a free BNMI travel mug!

Sincerely,
The Boston New Music Initiative, Inc.