Implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance, the programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage "Composing commissions" is the first project in Poland which systemically supports latest musical production. The programme annually endorses approximately one hundred new pieces by Polish and foreign composers, enabling a wide audience to access valuable contemporary music compositions.
The programme was launched in 2012 as an initiative of Polish musical milieu. The annual competition attracts applications form musical organizations willing to commission a work from a (Polish or foreign) composer or group of artists. The subsidy includes co-financing the work along with its world premiere and recording which is later rendered available online, free of charge, as part of the National Audiovisual Institute collection (Ninateka.pl).
The programme implements projects representing a wide array of genres, from the so-called contemporary classical music and music theatre performances through pieces combining different musical genres (e.g. popular and traditional music) and interdisciplinary projects verging on music, performing and visual arts. The music created thanks to Composing commissions is intended to resound not only in major concert halls, where it will add to the latest chapter of artistic music, but also in minor centres and among non-specialist audiences, acting as an important vessel of artistic education.
The programme subsidizes the creation those main types of commissions:
- chamber works
- vocal / vocal and instrumental works
- symphonic works
- other works in which sound is the main composition element
- electroacoustic works
- full-length and chamber stage works
- multimedia works in which sound is the main composition element.
The programme cofinanced 324 projects in the 2016-2019 period.
The total amount of the grant programme was 2,6 million USD.