Click here to discover more about the new RPS Thea Musgrave Fund which we have created with the kind support and creativity of composer Thea Musgrave and her husband, the conductor Peter Mark.

Thea’s remarkable catalogue of compositions spans decades and is a veritable treasure trove for performers and programmers. Following the huge success of her Mary, Queen of Scots staged by the English National Opera in February 2025, we are committed to encouraging more musicians and musical organisations to delve in, discover and embrace Thea’s many musical gems, and share them with UK audiences.

A great place to start is Thea’s dedicated page on the website of her publisher Novello & Co and Chester Music, part of Wise Music Group, which features her complete repertoire, details of key works, her biography and career highlights, and a short film of Thea talking about her music. The team at Wise Music will be so pleased to hear from you if you are interested in programming Thea’s works. They can provide any further information you may need about the logistics of doing this.

This year, we plan to offer several grants to help performers, ensembles, festivals and venues to put Thea’s music at the heart of their UK programming, and promote it in distinctive ways to captivate audiences. We are particularly keen to see creative and imaginative responses to Thea’s music, and real zeal to make a distinctive feature of it in your future plans, matching the impactful character of the music itself.  

This year, we expect to offer a total of £20,000 in grants for this, likely split between 2 or 3 recipients, with grants in the region of £5,000 to £10,000 each. At this level, we do not expect grants to cover your performance plans outright, but represent a useful contribution to help you presents Thea’s music notably in forthcoming concerts, in a dedicated festival, or across a season. In future years, we hope to offer larger grants to support the recording of Thea’s works and staging of her operas.

The closing date is 11am on Tuesday 1 July 2025. We regret we cannot consider applications received after this. We expect to let applicants know outcomes in September. Given this, activity for which you are applying should not be scheduled to take place prior to November 2025.

Who can apply?

As the RPS exists to support UK music-making, these grants are for established UK-based performers, and organisations that produce classical music performances in the UK.

We look forward to hearing from a broad range of applicants. Performers who apply should have already launched their career and no longer be in education/training nor applying for development programmes. Performers can be soloists, duos, or chamber ensembles. You can also apply if you organisationally or individually produce classical music performances in the UK, so long as you have a demonstrable track record of achieving this to a high standard with proven success drawing significant audiences and profile. We expect ensembles, venues, festivals and independent promoters to be among the applicants.

As a charity, we are keen to support a wide range of musicians and initiatives. If you have already received any kind of funding from the RPS within three years of the closing date (since 1 July 2022), we ask you not to apply at this time, but if eligible you may do so in a future year once that period has expired.

We continually strive to address how we can minimise barriers to the widest possible range of applicants. We are proud to adopt Sound and Music's Fair Access Principles and are signed up to the Keychange initiative, aiming to achieve 50:50 parity of marginalised genders in those we support. We warmly welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, particularly under-represented demographics, such as those who represent the global majority, those who are disabled, and those from working class backgrounds. If you feel that any part of our offer – or the experience in applying for it – could inhibit you or another candidate from applying, please do let us know (our contact details are below) and we will be happy to address this.

How to apply

For details on how to apply, please read the application guidelines linked here. These provide a step-by-step guide to the process and should address any questions you may have. We encourage you to read them in full before completing our online application form linked below.

Having read the guidelines, if you have further questions, please get in touch. In the first instance please contact Emily Porter, RPS Administrator, by email at admin@philharmonicsociety.uk or phone on 020 7287 0019.

As noted, the closing date is 11am on Tuesday 1 July 2025.

Click here to start your application:

Next steps

After the closing date, applications will be read with care, and your submitted compositions reviewed by us at the RPS and a select guest expert from the music profession. From this, we will create a shortlist of applications to share with Thea Musgrave and Peter Mark for their approval. Thank you for your patience as we fulfil this. We aim to let all applicants know outcomes in September. You can read about consequent steps for successful candidates following this in our application guidelines.