January of 2016 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the Bascom Little Fund. This year's grant cycle is now open and will be seeking proposals that showcase the Bascom Little Fund and what it has done for Cleveland area composers, their music and the greater Northeast Ohio Arts community over the past 50 years
The Bascom Little Fund is a charitable trust created to support the work of Northeast Ohio Composers. This trust was created for the promotion through the media of concerts, publications, recordings, and otherwise, of serious and semi-popular music, newly composed and performed in or near Cleveland, Ohio.
Bascom Little (1910-1965) was a Cleveland architect and amateur composer who studied composition with Donald Erb at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was deeply concerned about the difficulty of modern composers getting their music performed. His home included a concert facility and many performances of works by local composers were held there. After he died, his wife determined to perpetuate his memory and interests by creating a fund to enable performances and recordings of regional composers in order to promote their music.
The award-winning composer Margaret Brouwer has earned critical accolades for her music's lyricism, musical imagery and emotional power. Lawson Taitte of The Dallas Morning News praised Brouwer saying, “Ms. Brouwer has one of the most delicate ears and inventive imaginations among contemporary American composers.” Ms. Brouwer received a Meet The Composer Commissioning/USA award in 2010, an Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2006, was named a Guggenheim Fellow for 2004, and was awarded an Ohio Council for the Arts Individual Fellowship for 2005. She has also been awarded grants from the NEA, the Ford Foundation and the John S. Knight Foundation.
Frank Wiley is Director of the Kent State University New Music Ensemble and Director of the Kent State University Orchestra. He teaches courses in composition, 20th century music, and conducting. Dr. Wiley studied composition with Donald Erb and Roger Hannay and conducting with Thomas Briccetti.