What is the Sirens fund?

The ABO Trust received a donation of £200,000 in 2016 from Diana Ambache to support the costs of the Sirens fund, to encourage the programming of works by historical women composers for a 10 year period.

Annual grants are allocated according to the range and value of each project. Each year there is an application deadline at the end of February. Up to £19,000 will be shared between projects for concerts, tours, recordings and education work deemed to be doing most to advance and promote the understanding of music by women. These are selected by a panel agreed between the ABO and Diana Ambache. Orchestras are encouraged to use Women of Note as a resource, which lists orchestral music by historical women composers. The Sirens catalogue was updated in 2022 to include a more diverse range of historical female composers. Please note that this is not an exclusive list and please let us know if you have works which you have discovered which you suggest should be added. Diana Ambache is also available to talk about the works, please contact the ABO for further information.

In 2023, funds were awarded to ten orchestras – Academy of Ancient Music, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Chineke!, City of London Sinfonia, Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia/The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and Ulster Orchestra. The composers championed through these grant-winning organisations include Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Clara Schumann, Florence B. Price, Grace Williams, Ina Boyle, Lili Boulanger, Louise Farrenc, Maria Teresa Agnesi, Marianna Martinez, Mel Bonis and Ruth Gipps. The 2023 grant recipient works are being performed from June 2023 through to Spring 2024.

Diana Ambache, author, pianist, musicologist and generous supporter of the Sirens fund, said:
“It is pleasing to go to a concert with more women composers than men; Sirens has encouraged programmers to wider, more unusual thinking, which is more engaging.”

The BIG LIST of Women Composers is an ever-expanding list featuring more than 5,000 women composers from pre-medieval composers to 21 century-singer-songwriters. The list is searchable for orchestral music but does not provide orchestrations.

For more ideas, the Boulanger Initiative's mission is to “promote music composed by women through performance, education, and commissions.” The project took its name from Lili Boulanger, a late 19th/early 20th century French composer who was the first female winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome composition prize.

We reserve the right not to award all the available funds (£19,000) each year.

Please see the below ABO 2023 Sirens Information brochure for further information. The 2023 / 24 application form can be found at the bottom of this page, provided as an example for future years. Applications for the 2023/24 round are now closed.