Mission Statement
Abundant Silence believes that new music should be accessible to all individuals and communities through the practices of creating, listening, celebrating, and playing.

Values
Encouraging and celebrating new music is a valuable way to cultivate creativity, engage the community, inspire positive change, and utilize imagination to empower individuals.
Abundant Silence is committed to igniting passion for new music through education, advocacy, outreach, & presentation.
We seek to become a spark and vehicle for the creation of new work and to build a culture that venerates composers and the new work they create.

Our vision is a world filled with opportunities for people to express themselves freely through new music.

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Ways We Help Composers

Publish

• sheet music
• audio & video recordings
• books
• educational materials

Promote

• work by living composers
• 21st century music
• compositional development

Produce

• help composers produce their albums and new material
​• professional and educational composition programs

Preserve

• new musical works of art
• document and digitize works and performances
• 21st century music in compositional form

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Goals & Objectives for 2017-2019
 
Goal 1: provide educational opportunities for students that encourage the creation of new musical works
 
Objective 1 – expand the Festival for Creative Pianists in Denver, CO by increasing enrollment to 44 and getting at least 22 students to participate in composition opportunities during the festival. 
Objective 2 – develop a strategy to implement Composer Mentor Program by October 1st 2018, work with Featured Composition Educator to develop educational materials for composition students as well as training materials for composers on our roster and provide one composition student per month in 2019 with a session via our Composer Mentor program.
 
Goal 2: design products and content for member composers that will effectively market their work for sheet music sales and licensing opportunities while uplifting their unique musical voice and making new work available to wider audiences
 
Objective 1 – publish 2 new works per month, encouraging all composers on the roster to submit one new work to the catalog
Objective 2 – produce an audio album of new works for our Featured Composition Artist, planning in 2018, recording in summer of 2019 for fall release
Objective 3 – encourage our Featured Composition Educator to release at least 4 works for collaborative intermediate level players and encourage Featured Composition Artist to release 4 new works for chamber ensembles
Objective 4 – preserve the current works in our catalog by marketing to libraries and attending the Music Library Association Convention in 2019
 
Goal 3: develop opportunities for composers to give them the time and resources necessary to create new work
 
Objective 1 – create a commissioning page on the organization website to make it easy for the public to submit requests for commissioning new works by composers on the roster
Objective 2 – work with the board of directors to come up with a strategy and guidelines for a new program, Compose for a Week, to provide composers with an opportunity to create new work, target date for implementation is April 1st 2019
 
Goal 4: discover living composers that are in need of support and whose values are aligned with our mission
 
Objective 1 – host annual composition contest, adding 3-9 new composers to the roster each year, with the top three choices submitted to the International Society for Contemporary Music festival as a new benefit
Objective 2 – add new categories to the contest, adding partnerships to help make the contest more robust and offer new opportunities
 
Goal 5: provide affordable and accessible listening opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds
 
Objective 1 – host 2 New Works Concerts in 2018 and 3 new works concerts in 2019 that are affordable and located in communities that are often underserved
Objective 2 – add 6 new partner ensembles before the end of 2019 to help reach a wider audience around the country
 
Goal 6: encourage the pursuit of creative development and the benefits of utilizing creative skills to solve problems, express emotion and struggle, and speak to the human condition
 
Objective 1 – communicate and advocate by sending out monthly newsletter to mailing list and biannual notice out to member composers
Objective 2 – write an advocacy paper with corresponding powerpoint presentation to present at conferences
Objective 3 – increase board to 7 members and advisory board to 5 members, revise bylaws and membership guidelines in 2018, undertake strategic planning in 2019, & develop new ways for board members to serve as volunteers for the organization