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Home » Orchestra News » 28 U.S. Orchestras to Receive Grants from League of American Orchestras


28 U.S. Orchestras to Receive Grants from League of American Orchestras

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The League of American Orchestras on June 4 awarded grants to 28 U.S. orchestras to strengthen their understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and to help transform organizational culture. Twenty-two of the winning orchestras operate under AFM Collective Bargaining Agreements.

Ranging from $15,000 to $25,000 each, the one-year grants comprise the second round of The Catalyst Fund, the League’s three-year, $2.1 million grant-making program, made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with additional support from the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.

“Recent events have underscored the deep racial disparities existing in our country, already amplified by the pandemic’s unequal impact on communities of color,” said Jesse Rosen, President and CEO of the League of American Orchestras. “The work orchestras are undertaking with support from the League’s Catalyst Fund highlights the urgency of addressing EDI as orchestras attempt to confront decades of inequity within our field. We must understand and address our personal and organizational roles in systems of inequity.”

Catalyst Fund grants support orchestras’ use of EDI practitioners who help implement a range of organizational development activities including anti-bias trainings, institutional audits, the creation of formal EDI plans, and work to build consensus and integrate EDI into mission statements and culture.

2020 Catalyst Fund Grant Recipients:

  • Charlotte Symphony Orchestra
  • Chicago Sinfonietta
  • Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
  • East Texas Symphony Orchestra
  • Grand Rapids Symphony
  • Handel and Haydn Society
  • Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra
  • Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
  • Los Angeles Philharmonic
  • Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
  • Minnesota Orchestra
  • Nashville Symphony
  • New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
  • North Carolina Symphony
  • Oakland Symphony
  • Pacific Symphony
  • Princeton Symphony Orchestra
  • Richmond Symphony
  • Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
  • San Francisco Symphony
  • Seattle Symphony
  • Virginia Symphony Orchestra






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