#NewYorkNotes @RecordingAcad @GrammyMuseum Grammy Museum Grant Program Awards $200,000 For Music Research And Sound Preservation
GRAMMY MUSEUM® GRANT PROGRAM AWARDS $200,000 FOR MUSIC RESEARCH AND SOUND PRESERVATION
FUNDS WILL PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR ARCHIVAL AND PRESERVATION PROGRAMS AND RESEARCH EFFORTS THAT EXAMINE THE IMPACT OF MUSIC ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
The Grammy Museum® Grant Program announced today that $200,000 in grants will be awarded to 14 recipients in the United States to help facilitate a range of research on a variety of subjects, as well as support a number of archival and preservation programs.
"The Grammy Museum is proud to recognize and support this year’s Music Research and Preservation Grant recipients. Our mission is to celebrate the music of yesterday and today so that we can shape the music of tomorrow, and each of this year’s grantees and their work do just that,” said Michael Sticka, President/CEO of the Grammy Museum. “We are grateful to the Recording Academy® for its consistent support and generous funding of this important program and look forward to seeing the results of our recipients’ work and passion."
Generously funded by the Recording Academy, the Grammy Museum Grant Program provides funding annually to organizations and individuals to support efforts that advance the archiving and preservation of the recorded sound heritage of the Americas for future generations, in addition to research projects related to the impact of music on the human condition. In 2008, the Grammy Museum Grant Program expanded its categories to include assistance grants for individuals and small to mid-sized organizations to aid collections held by individuals and organizations that may not have access to the expertise needed to create a preservation plan. The assistance planning process, which may include inventorying and stabilizing a collection, articulates the steps to be taken to ultimately archive recorded sound materials for future generations. This year marks the 38th year of the program.
More information about the program can be found at www.grammymuseum.org.
Scientific Research Grantees
Boston University — Boston, MA
Awarded: $20,000
This project will investigate intergenerational links between musicality and language by examining how caregivers’ musical and linguistic skills relate to their children’s corresponding skills, while also accounting for the musically and linguistically enriched environments that caregivers foster for their children. Findings have the potential to inform early childhood music programs and caregiver-focused early intervention approaches to facilitate children’s language skill development.
Dawn Merrett — Quebec, CAN
Awarded: $20,000
Group singing has the power to bring people together, boost well-being, and even support language learning. For immigrants and refugees, it could be a simple, inclusive and holistic way to tackle issues around communication and integration. This project will rigorously test whether choirs are an effective and efficient strategy to promote language skills, well-being and social connections for newcomers.
The Research Foundation of the State of New York — Buffalo, NY
Awarded: $19,957
This project will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how transgender individuals perceive their own singing voices when altered to be gender-congruent or incongruent, in comparison to cisgender individuals. The central goal is to map the neural networks underlying self-perception of gender through voice. A critical extension is to examine how incongruent acoustic cues may elicit dysphoria-related brain responses.
Preservation Assistance Grantees
Audium Incorporated — San Francisco, CA
Awarded: $5,000
This project will preserve and prepare Audium’s historic audio archive - containing field recordings, electronic sounds, interviews, and source material for pioneering compositions - for long-term care and public access. By assessing, cataloging and digitizing these at-risk recordings, the project aims to safeguard a vital chapter in the history of spatial sound for artists, researchers and future generations.
CCMC Music Gallery — Toronto, ON
Awarded: $2,500
This project will lay the groundwork to preserve a singular historical record of the development of experimental/contemporary music in Canada in the form of a searchable digitized archive of the Music Gallery recordings from 1976 forward. This will be available to the public, serving music historians, students and music lovers. To achieve this, the CCMC Music Gallery will research other music archives, discover best practices, confirm their metadata schema, and categorize their recordings.
Friends of the Brattleboro Music Center, Inc — Brattleboro, VT
Awarded: $2,500
The Brattleboro Music Center’s (BMC) 73-year history is closely associated with luminaries of 20th-century classical music. The BMC archive is currently in need of archival stabilization and storage, as well as digital reproduction. Their goal is to work with a professional archivist to guide efforts to preserve and catalog their collection and to plan for long-term preservation and access for scholars, musicians and the public.
Mary Phillips — Washington, DC
Awarded: $5,000
The Kee Tsa Gya project aims to research, catalog and develop a plan to archive and preserve six decades of sound recordings by the Zotigh Singers, a Native American Southern-style powwow drum group. The collection includes reel-to-reel tapes, cassette tapes, out-of-print CDs, and video audio containing over 200 original songs composed by Ralph and Dennis Zotigh, the group’s lead singers. These recordings represent the evolution and power of powwow music.
Trinity University — San Antonio, TX
Awarded: $5,000
This project will restore and preserve the complete catalog of an independent classical record label active in New York City after World War II. Following the death of Peter Bartók (1924-2020), a rich collection of original masters for his widely admired record label, Bartók Records, came into their personal possession. Beginning in 2026, they will inventory the collection and develop a plan for its long-term preservation.
Preservation Implementation
Boston Symphony Orchestra — Boston, MA
Awarded: $20,000
The Boston Symphony Orchestra seeks to digitize 360 at-risk audio recordings of 354 live broadcasts of Boston Pops concerts from 1970 – 1979. This extraordinary audio record of Fielder’s final decade leading the Boston Pops documents his expansive idea of what music belonged in the concert hall. The tapes have become so fragile, they cannot be played. The BSO will preserve the originals and make digitized files available to those who are interested.
Fisk University — Nashville, TN
Awarded: $20,000
Fisk University will preserve, digitize and protect rare and fragile archival recordings that document the voices, music and legacy of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the University’s historic contributions to African American musical heritage, ensuring long-term preservation, access and continuity of America’s Black musical legacy.
The Great American Songbook Foundation — Carmel, IN
Awarded: $20,000
To digitize and make accessible approximately 350 transcription discs from the James McDowell Collection. The proposed preservation project will make 100% of the rare and commercially unavailable McDowell collection items publicly accessible via the organization’s Preservica digital asset management system and make available in its online archives (https://songbook.accesstomemory.org/ ).
The Louis Armstrong House Museum — Queens, NY
Awarded: $20,000
The Louis Armstrong House Museum seeks to preserve and digitize the newly acquired Lil Hardin Armstrong Collection, ensuring that her voice and artistry are permanently safeguarded. Lil Hardin was married to Louis Armstrong from 1924 - 1938. She was a composer, arranger, pianist, bandleader, and business manager who played a pivotal role in shaping the Hot Fives and Sevens, the very recordings that revolutionized jazz.
The Paley Center for Media — New York, NY
Awarded: $20,000
Paley will undertake a year-long project to preserve through digitization a curated collection of original 2” film recordings of performances by African American vocalists/musicians on the groundbreaking television program, "The Midnight Special" (1973-1981). Preservation will ensure continued access to best quality, closest-to-source recordings, providing important historical and cultural context to a broad public audience.
Awarded: $20,000
WXPN aims to realize a digital asset management (DAM) system for the WXPN archives, prioritizing users. Archive needs are to catalog, complete the digitization process, and make assets accessible to the public. The archive holds 35 years of World Cafe content and 21 years of Free At Noon performances. World Cafe brings to life stories of musicians across a range of genres. Free At Noon is a weekly live performance by emerging and established musicians.
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