The newly-established American Music Project has been making a bit of buzz as of late. Formally announced on August 4, the nascent nonprofit is philosophically allied with Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy in not only recognizing a lack of presence in the current performance repertoire, but providing the means to a solution. AMP aims to increase the number of works by American composers included in programming, and will offer grants to provide incentive and means to do so—much like the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy Performance Grants (which will be announced shortly) to provide funding for the performances of works by women composers.

In an interview published at ClassicElite.com executive director and founder of AMP, writer and critic Lawrence Johnson names several American composers that should be included in the common repertoire, but are all too often forgotten. Not surprisingly, Johnson didn’t mention any works by women composers among the list of great but under-appreciated and under-performed works.

To find out more about the grant process or to apply for funding see the AMP website. They encourage applicants to “be ambitious” and “imaginative”—a great opportunity for ensembles to propose performances of works by the long forgotten American women whose works are an important piece to the American musical landscape.  Why not Amy Beach’s Mass, or one of Florence Price’s Symphonies?  Or a concert of chamber works by Rebecca Clarke, Vivian Fine, Ruth Crawford Seeger, or Clara Kathleen Rogers?

The first commissioned piece by AMP is a Piano Quintet by Amy Wurtz. The piece will be premiered in Chicago on October 5 by the Chicago Q Ensemble.

Here is Part 1 of Wurtz’s String Quartet No. 2 performed by the Chicago Q Ensemble: