the Musiqa Endowment
SECURING THE FUTURE OF NEW MUSIC CREATION IN HOUSTON
The Musiqa staff and Board of Directors is proud to announce the establishment of the Musiqa Endowment, made possible with a $100,000 gift from a longtime supporter of Musiqa. After two decades of helping to raise Houston’s profile as a national destination for musical and artistic innovation, the creation of the Musiqa Endowment will ensure that our work continues for years to come.
“Starting an endowment has been a long-standing dream for Musiqa,” says Artistic Director Anthony Brandt. “We are deeply grateful for this incredible gift.”
In its first twenty years, Musiqa has established itself as one of the country’s foremost new music ensembles. Musiqa’s mission is to enrich and inspire the community through programs that integrate new music with other modern art-forms. We strive to make contemporary repertoire accessible and vital to audiences of all ages and musical backgrounds. Our recent seasons exemplify our comprehensive approach, with world premieres by new music luminaries like Laura Schwendinger, a cutting-edge collaboration with Noble Motion Dance Company and the University of Houston’s Brain Center, short films highlighting Houston’s cultural arts scene, the establishment of a nationwide consortium to provide support to emerging Black, Latinx and Indigenous composers, and the expansion of our educational programming in area high schools to create the composers of tomorrow.
To learn more about the Musiqa Endowment and how you can support it with donations and legacy giving, contact Musiqa at info@musiqahouston.org or (713)524-5678.
MORE ABOUT MUSIQA
Composer-centered ensembles like Musiqa exist in cities around the world to provide a forum for new works. However, when Musiqa’s founding Artistic Board Members moved to Houston in the mid-1990s, no such professional organization existed here. Musiqa launched in 2002 to address this deficit. Since then, Musiqa has performed the works of over 200 composers, including over seventy world premieres, in concert halls, galleries, public parks, places of worship, and private homes across the Houston-area and beyond.
Musiqa has presented new works in dialogue with other modern art forms from the beginning. Our shows regularly feature poets, painters, actors, and dancers; these collaborations have fostered relationships across disciplines in Houston. Past collaborators include playwrights Edward Albee, Neena Beber, Will Eno, and Jennifer Haley, authors Nic Flynn, Jennifer Grotz, Tony Hoagland, Mat Johnson, Rich Levy, and Antonya Nelson, and the Houston Ballet Academy, Alley Theater, Inprint, Houston Cinema Arts Society, and many of Houston’s most accomplished dance companies. Our educational programming, launched in 2004, is an essential component in achieving our objectives. In the past 17 years, our education programs have served more than 60,000 public school students and teachers from over 250 greater Houston area schools, all at no cost to the participants.
Musiqa received the 2013 and 2016 Adventurous Programming Awards from Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers – the highest national honor for a group like ours. Other national recognition includes 16 consecutive grants from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and commissioning grants from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, the Fromm Foundation, and the French-American Cultural Exchange program. Our education programming has received eleven awards from the National Endowment for the Arts.