ETHEL’s Foundation for the Arts is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2002 by the string quartet ETHEL to support contemporary concert music and to expand its audience. Highlights of the Foundation's recent activities include:

	PERFORMANCES AND PROJECTS ETHEL's Foundation supports contemporary concert music through exciting, innovative performances by the string quartet in collaboration with an exhilarating array of composers and musicians. ETHEL has premiered 47 new works in the past three years, including compositions by Kenji Bunch, John King, Phil Kline, and Mark Stewart. Recent premieres include: SPACE, a haunting work with music by Phil Kline and soundscape by Jody Elff that debuted at Alice Tully Hall in March 2009 and was performed that spring at the Kennedy Center; a WNYC-commission by Osvaldo Golijov to inaugurate its Jerome Greene Performance Space in April 2009; and Wait for Green, a collaborative work with choreographer Annie-B. Parson with score by ETHEL commissioned by the World Financial Center in December 2008. In 2010, ETHEL will premiere Extended Family, commissioned from Neil Rolnick. ETHEL has been working since 2006 on TruckStop®, our ambitious collaborative commissioning and compositional initiative inspired by the rich musical and cultural diversity we’ve observed during our over ten seasons of touring. In October 2008, ETHEL premiered ETHEL’s TruckStop®: The Beginning at BAM’s NextWave Festival. This critically acclaimed work of music-theatre was directed by Annie Dorsen (Broadway’s Passing Strange) and featured TruckStop® alumnae: Tejano Conjunto accordionist Eva Ybarra; New Mexico’s preeminent Native American flutist Robert Mirabal; Hawaiian slack key guitarist Jeff Peterson; and banjo legend Dean Osborne. TruckStop® is an ongoing initiative. To learn more, click here. For more information on the quartet's performances and projects, see EVENTS or visit our pages at Baylin Artists Management.
	COMMISSIONING ETHEL's Foundation has developed a robust commissioning program for mid-career and established composers, which in ten years has generated more than 40 new works from diverse voices including Phil Kline, Julia Wolfe, and Neil Rolnick. The Foundation also commissions innovative emerging composers, and to that end, we recently launched ETHEL’s HomeBaked to commission younger artists who live and work in ETHEL's hometown of New York City. ETHEL's HomeBaked captures new and distinct flavors in the quartet's own artistic research kitchen. Commissioned artists to date include Andy Akiho, Anna Clyne, Matt Marks and Judd Greenstein. ETHEL's TruckStop® generates new work through collaborations with authentic, important, and often under-recognized indigenous composers from across the United States and indeed around the world. For more information about ETHEL's TruckStop, click here. For a list of ETHEL's commissions, click here.
	EDUCATION Native American Composers Apprentice Project (NACAP). Since 2005, ETHEL has been quartet-in-residence at NACAP, a project of the Grand Canyon Music Festival. Every September, ETHEL tours schools on Navajo and Hopi reservations in the Four Corners region to work with young Native American composers. Some 25 students compose their own string quartets. ETHEL coaches the young artists, rehearsing and polishing their pieces which are performed at schools and youth centers, with a culminating concert at Grand Canyon National Park. The body of NACAP work now totals more than 250 compositions. ETHEL has performed NACAP music in Germany, Mexico, Holland, Australia, and all across the United States. Additionally, NACAP pieces feature prominently in ETHEL’s other educational residencies. Young musicians from Chicago, IL to Hobart, Tasmania have studied and performed the music of these gifted young Native Americans. Residency Program for Young Native American Composers: Modeled after the Grand Canyon Music Festival’s Native American Composers Apprentice Project (NACAP, see above) this program offers young Native American composers throughout North America the opportunity to further develop their musical voices through the process of writing music for the string quartet. ETHEL guides each young artist through the entire compositional practice, from harmonic outline and thematic development, to score editing and rehearsal techniques. Special emphasis is devoted to notation, publication and recording considerations. Premiere performances of student compositions are professionally recorded, and each program participant receives a printed score and parts of their piece(s). Learn more. * Affordable residency activities: The Foundation helps to support a range of residency activities to inspire and encourage younger musicians. These programs include lectures, workshops, performances and master classes at colleges, music schools and universities. Topics include improvisation, composition, and collaboration. Learn more.
	OUTREACH ETHEL performs free and affordable concerts throughout the year. In 2009-2010, the quartet is featured at several free concerts in the outer boroughs of New York City as part of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series. ETHEL embraces new technology to expand audiences through initiatives such as ETHEL's Listening Library, an online archive where web visitors can listen to new music for free, increasing the composers' outreach and visibility. Material from the Listening Library will be the core of quarterly online podcasts that will introduce contemporary concert music to an ever-widening audience via the web. Sign up for ETHEL's quarterly e-zine to receive updates on outreach projects.
	SUPPORT US To make a tax-deductible contribution online, click here. Contributions can also be sent by check payable to: ETHEL’s Foundation for the Arts 331 West 57th Street #494 New York, NY 10019. To view a complete list of contributors, click here. To view our Guidestar profile, click here.