National Endowment for the Arts FY 2017 Fall Grant Announcement

To support Winter Jazzfest. The festival will feature more than 100 performances by as many as 400 artists in
various Greenwich Village venues such as the New School. The multi-night festival will take place concomitant
with the Association of Performing Arts Presenters' conference and will focus on developing new audiences for
jazz and improvisational music. Past festival performers include Jason Moran, Gretchen Parlato, Henry
Threadgill, Allen Toussaint, Kamasi Washington, as well as NEA Jazz Master Dr. Lonnie Smith.
Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Inc. (aka Seattle Symphony)
$40,000 Seattle, WA
To support a performance project featuring new orchestral works and a composition workshop for young
composers. The project will comprise of distinct concert programs, including innovative and varied
contemporary repertoire, designed to attract Seattle's diverse communities through the creation, performance,
and appreciation of symphonic music. Guest artists participating in the project include composers Judd
Greenstein and Aaron Jay Kernis. Performances and related activities will be held at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.
Seraphic Fire, Inc (aka Seraphic Fire)
$15,000 Miami, FL
To support a commissioning and performance project of new choral works by American composers. Under the
leadership of Founder and Artistic Director Patrick Quigley, the chorus will perform works by composers such as
Miami-based Shawn Crouch and Alvaro Bermudez, as well as James Kallembach and Abbie Betinis. Concert
programs will be presented in southern Florida communities such as Miami, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale,
Naples, and Miami Beach.
Sitka Summer Music Festival Inc. (aka Sitka Summer Music Festival)
$15,000 Sitka, AK
To support a touring and outreach project in cities and rural towns of Alaska. The festival brings professional
musicians from around the world to Alaska each year to rehearse and perform in small ensembles of two to
eight performers in as many as 25 concerts and more than 40 educational and community outreach activities.
Programming will feature artists such as the Arianna, Cypress, and Ying Quartets, and pianist Awadagin Pratt.
Covering more than 586,000 square miles, the tour will reach communities such as Anchorage, Dillingham, Eagle
River, Fairbanks, Juneau, Naknek, and Sitka. Community populations range from 375 people in Kiana to more
than 300,000 in Anchorage.
South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (aka SDSO)
$12,500 Sioux Falls, SD
To support a performance project exploring music as a means to creating openness and cultural understanding.
Under the artistic leadership of Music Director Delta David Gier, the project will be titled Cultures in Conflict and
will focus on the relationship between Syria and Iran through a musical dialogue between Syrian-American
composer and pianist Malek Jandali and Persian-American composer Behzad Ranjbaran. Building on the success
of the orchestra's Lakota Music Project, which addressed the issue of racial discrimination, programming will
include works by both composers, such as Jandali's "Phoenix in Exile," Ranjbaran's "Viola Concerto," as well as
French composer Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" and "Rapsodie Espagnole," and will feature guest artists such as
violist Roberto Diaz. Performances will be accompanied by events such as lectures and post-concert dialogue
among the audience, project partners, and the composers. The orchestra will collaborate with the Muslim
Community Education Center in Sioux Falls, the Symphony Youth Orchestra, and key individuals such as former
U.S. Senator James Abourezk (U.S. Senate from 1973-79; U.S. House of Representatives from 1971-73) and his
wife Sanaa. Concerts will be presented at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls.
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of
December 7, 2016.