Collective funding model for contemporary music gains momentum

In a major show of support for contemporary and experimental music, The Living Music Trust has received an Arts Council England grant of over £10,000 to continue its development.

The Living Music Trust will establish a long-term endowment to support composers, musicians, and artists working across new and exploratory forms of music.

Designed as a sector-owned resource, it aims to transform how adventurous music is sustained – expanding opportunities for artists and enriching connections with audiences for decades to come. It is being supported by The Hinrichsen Foundation in partnership with The Ivors Academy, alongside organisations and composers across the new music sector.

Photo credit: James Clarkson. Dead Cat Bounce by Waste Paper Opera at No Bounds Festival Sheffield

Inspired by the likes of the Vaughan Williams Foundation, Holst Foundation and Britten Pears Foundation, The Living Music Trust will offer a new model for supporting contemporary work. As historic, royalty-funded trusts begin to reach the end of their terms (70 years after their passing), the need for sustainable, forward-looking support has never been greater.

The Trust will be built collectively, with composers contributing a small percentage of their posthumous royalties into a shared fund. This pooled crowdfunding-style approach aims to secure longer term backing for innovative music, and the composers shaping its future, beginning with an endowment and legacy campaign from supporters beyond the composer community.

Photo credit: Tom Platinum Morley. Dead Cat Bounce by Waste Paper Opera at Nottingham Contemporary.

The initiative has already received strong support across the sector, including from the PRS Foundation, Boltini Trust, Richard Thomas Foundation, Composers Edition and Sound and Music, alongside growing engagement from composers nationwide.

Early momentum was established through Composer Town Halls in April and June 2025, demonstrating a clear appetite for a new, collective funding model. That momentum has continued to build through a series of composer assemblies across the UK, including a gathering in Wales in partnership with Tŷ Cerdd in January 2026, and with the Scottish Music Centre in March 2026.

Experimental musician and sound artist Shannon-Latoyah Simon, outlined:

“We’re at a point where the structures that have supported new, experimental and contemporary music are under strain and disappearing quickly. The Living Music Trust feels like a necessary response, and I’m thrilled that the Arts Council England has endorsed such a forward-looking model that puts agency back into the hands of composers and helps to secure the future of the creation of new music in the UK.”

Photo credit: Tom Platinum Morley. Dead Cat Bounce by Waste Paper Opera at Nottingham Contemporary.

Ed McKeon, who proposed The Living Music Trust and who is Chair of The Hinrichsen Foundation commented:

“I’m thrilled that Arts Council England has endorsed the prospect of The Living Music Trust. It recognises that composers and musicians create long-term value, both cultural and economic, and that the UK has an altruistic tradition of composers supporting future generations of practitioners through Trusts based on posthumous rights income. The Hinrichsen Foundation itself was initially founded on this principle, with income coming then from its majority shareholding of a music publisher. I very much hope that this gesture of planting seeds for trees to shelter the next composers can inspire others to contribute to an initial endowment to set the Trust in motion. The research phase that we are now ready to embark on will tell us whether that is likely to be the case.”

The award from Arts Council England marks an important step in developing this model. Funding will enable research to test viability and build sector engagement, planning toward a potential launch.

The call-out to appoint a freelance researcher is now live. The deadline for expressions of interest is 22 May 2026. For more information, please contact livingmusictrust@gmail.com.

The grant award will be facilitated by The Hinrichsen Foundation, which provided seed funds for this process, with activity supported by The Ivors Academy.