BMI Foundation Announces Artistic Consultants for Updated New Music Grants Program
NEW YORK, NY - February 23, 2026 - BMI Foundation, Inc. is pleased to announce a new panel of music industry veterans who will serve as Artistic Consultants for the Foundation’s flagship organizational grant program, the New Music Grants. This new group of consultants includes music industry veterans such as conductors, performers, professors, publishers and heads of organizations across the country who will serve the program in two vital ways: nominating organizations who may be eligible to apply and evaluating completed applications to receive a minimum of three years of operational support.
“I could not be more thrilled to welcome this wonderful group of artists to our organization, each of whom is a respected leader, creator and thinker in their field,” said BMI Foundation President Deirdre Chadwick. “The quality of our programs depends on these industry experts who donate their time out of their own generosity and love for our community. The commitment, understanding and integrity they bring to our process is invaluable.”
Established in the 1980s, the New Music Grants Program is the BMI Foundation’s flagship organizational grant program. Since its inception, the Foundation has given millions of dollars in general operating support to small budget 501(c)3 organizations specializing in the creation and performance of new American music as well as music education across the United States. This year, for the first time, the Foundation is extending these grants to be renewable over three years. Organizations must have budgets under two million dollars and can receive up to two consecutive cycles (six years) of support.
More information on the BMI Foundation’s Artistic Consultants can be found below:
Daniel Atkinson is Executive Director of San Diego Jazz Ventures, the producer of the San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival, a major cross-border music event. He also founded the Athenaeum Jazz series in San Diego and has been its artistic director for the past four decades. DownBeat has recognized the Athenaeum as one of the world’s great jazz rooms. From 2001-2020, he was Director of Arts, Humanities, Languages, and Digital Arts at UC San Diego. He is also the past Executive Director of the Western Jazz Presenters Network, a nonprofit coalition of 40 jazz organizations spanning western North America. A recipient of the JJA Jazz Hero award, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (UK), and Member of the Recording Academy, Atkinson has produced albums including Peter Erskine’s 2008 Grammy-nominated “Standards.” He has been a panelist for international arts conferences and has served as a grant reviewer for national foundation and government grants.
Jennie Oh Brown is a Chicago-based flutist, visionary, and entrepreneur serving as Executive Director of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, where she manages a $3 million budget and oversees programming for 850 students across 14 ensembles. Previously, she served as Artistic Director of Epiphany Center for the Arts and Executive/Artistic Director of the 2021 Ear Taxi Festival, presenting 600 Chicago artists. Jennie has released critically acclaimed albums with Innova Recordings, with upcoming projects on Cedille and Nonesuch Records. Her performing career includes the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony, and founding Picosa. She serves on Chamber Music America's Board, championing equity and innovation. Photo: Forestt Strong Lafave
Neil Gillis is a veteran music publishing executive with over 40+ years of leadership across major publishers, independent firms, and emerging rights-management companies. As Co-Founder/President of Round Hill Music, he built the company into a global publishing powerhouse through strategic acquisitions and catalog growth featuring iconic songs. His long tenure at Warner/Chappell Music and S1 Songs further established his reputation for creative development and commercial insight. Today, Neil serves as Founder of CollectivRights, innovating at the intersection of publishing, licensing, and technology. A trusted advisor and industry thought leader, he is deeply committed to protecting creators’ rights while balancing artistry with business.
Eric Jacobsen is one of classical music’s most exciting and innovative conductors, praised by The New York Times as “an interpretive dynamo.” As both conductor and cellist, he is known for fresh interpretations and adventurous, collaborative programming. He serves as Music Director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and is Principal Guest Conductor of the Classical Tahoe Music Festival. Jacobsen is also co-founder and Artistic Director of The Knights, an NYC-based chamber orchestra with a Carnegie Hall residency and acclaimed recordings with artists including Yo-Yo Ma and Gil Shaham. A frequent guest conductor, he engages audiences through joyful, story-driven “musical conversations.”
Jennifer Kessler leads arts, culture, and music education programs that advance a diverse arts ecosystem. She is Director of Programs at CANVAS, where she oversees grantmaking and professional development across the Jewish arts and culture sector. Previously, as Executive Director of the International Contemporary Ensemble, she expanded global partnerships, diversified governance and staffing, and secured the organization’s largest Mellon Foundation grant. In senior roles at Carnegie Hall, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Willie Mae Rock Camp, she designed and produced hundreds of performances and education programs with world-renowned artists. A former French horn player, Jennifer now teaches leadership strategy at the New School’s College of Performing Arts and has been a guest lecturer at The Juilliard School and OAcademy. Photo: Mariana Meraz
GRAMMY®-nominated composer/librettist David T. Little (Dog Days, JFK, Soldier Songs, Black Lodge, What Belongs to You) is a natural musical storyteller with “a knack for overturning musical conventions” (The New York Times). Known for stage, concert, and screen works permeated with the power of the unexpected, his broad catalog probes the deep corners of human psychology, unafraid to invoke the mythical, bewitching, disturbing, surreal, or comedic in order to explore the human condition. He is currently developing a new work commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program, as well as several other new stage, film, and concert projects. Published by Boosey & Hawkes, Little holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and chairs the Composition program at the Mannes School of Music. www.davidtlittle.com Photo: Daniel Welch
The only artist ever to have won two Walter W. Naumburg Awards, as a chamber musician and a solo vocalist, internationally acclaimed soprano Lucy Shelton has premiered over 100 works, many of which were written expressly for her vocal talents. She has worked closely with composers such as Carter, Wuorinen, Del Tredici, Babbitt, Ran, Knussen, Saariaho, Kurtag, Schwantner, Grisey, Rands and Boulez; with ensembles including the Emerson String Quartet, eighth blackbird, Da Camera of Houston, 21st Century Consort, Da Capo Chamber Players, Schoenberg-Asko Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble and Ensemble InterContemporain; and as both faculty and soloist at Festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, Santa Fe, Ojai, Banff, Yellow Barn, Chamber Music Northwest, BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Kuhmo, and Salzburg. In 2023, she received Chamber Music America’s Bogomolny Lifetime Achievement Award to celebrate her achievements in chamber music. Shelton has taught at New England Conservatory and Cleveland Institute, and is currently a faculty member at Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program, for which she received the President’s Medal of Distinguished Service in 2026. Shelton will make her Metropolitan Opera and Paris Opera debuts in 2026 and 2027, respectively, as The Teacher in Kaija Saariaho's final opera “Innocence," a role written for her and first performed at Festival Aix-en-Provence in 2021.
AfroPneumatic composer and improviser Dr. Matthew Evan Taylor (1980) creates music that is inspired by community, time, and the human. His current practice is built upon AfroPneumaism, a liberatory framework for music composition, performance, and community building which connects musical action, musical timeframes, and audience witnessing to the breath. Emerging in part from the Black Lives Matter Movement, Dr. Taylor’s AfroPneumaism answers the urgent and poignant refrain “I can’t breathe!” with a defiant “I will breathe! I must breathe!” Dr. Taylor is a BMI composer based in Oakland, California and is Assistant Professor of Composition at UC Berkeley.
Raff Wilson is Vice President of Artistic Planning for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2020. Active for more than 20 years in the orchestral programming sphere, he has also directed the artistic planning for the Hong Kong Philharmonic and for his home town orchestra, the Sydney Symphony. Raff began his professional life working in the music publishing industry and has a performance background as a singer. He holds a degree in languages from the University of Sydney.
Lidiya Yankovskaya is a conductor with powerful range – from Verdi and Wagner to Price and Prokofiev – and an unshakeable sense of classical music as a living, responsive art form. Her bold, collaborative leadership has shaped the development of dozens of world premieres – including over 20 new operas – and brought fresh urgency to performances with major orchestras and opera companies across the globe. This season, Yankovskaya makes her Scandinavian debut at Norwegian National Opera with Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She conducts the same work at The Grange Festival in a return to the United Kingdom and brings her interpretation of Bartok masterwork Bluebeard’s Castle, praised by The Times as “lyrical, polished, and compelling,” to Omaha Symphony. Elsewhere, she conducts orchestras around the world, including her first performances at Vienna’s iconic Musikverein with Tonkünstler Orchester and return engagements with Phoenix Symphony and with London Philharmonic Orchestra, where she leads a world-premiere piano concerto. Photo: Todd Rosenberg
About the BMI Foundation, Inc.
The BMI Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to encourage the creation, performance, and study of American music. The Foundation’s programs include competitive scholarships for songwriters and composers, operating grants for nonprofit arts presenters, and support for innovative music education initiatives in schools and communities across the country. For more information about the work of the Foundation, please visit our website at www.bmifoundation.org. For exclusive news and content, follow @bmifoundation on Instagram and like BMI Foundation on Facebook.
