Sound and Music: Essentials Fund

The Essentials Fund supports composers, music creators or artists working creatively with music and sound, to purchase essentials for their practice. 

We support a minimum of 20 composers each year through several open calls each year.

The Essentials Fund provides grants of £300–£600 to support your composing practice. You can use the fund for self-learning projects, equipment, mentoring, or other expenses directly related to your work as a composer or music creator. We will award a minimum of 10 grants in this round

Applications for Round Three are now open!

Deadline to submit applications: Monday 8 December 2025, 23:59.

Find out more and apply!

The Essentials Fund is made possible thanks to the generous support from Arts Council England and the Francis Chagrin Award. Francis Chagrin was the founder of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM), one of the new music organisations that merged to form Sound and Music in 2008.