CALL: RPS Ambache Fund 31.03.26

The RPS is the new home for a much-valued fund recognising and celebrating historic women composers.

Women have always played a central, creative role in the story of music. Only lately has the modern world started to recognise and embrace this. Gradually, outstanding and inspiring music by women – often overlooked for decades, even centuries – is finding its rightful place onstage. This is a time of rich and rewarding discovery, for performers to excavate jewels from history to brighten their repertoire, and for audiences to embrace so many wonders just waiting to be cherished.

A true pioneer in all this is the musician Diana Ambache who, around 40 years ago, set about raising awareness and engagement for music composed by women throughout the ages. In this mission, Diana established the Ambache Charitable Trust which has done so much to raise the profile of women composers and help get their music heard. Previously a registered charity in itself, we are delighted in agreement with Diana and her fellow Trustees to make a new home for this venture here at the Royal Philharmonic Society, as the RPS Ambache Fund. We invite you to discover more about Diana and the achievements of the Ambache Charitable Trust here.

With the funds it has bestowed at the RPS, over several years, we will annually offer a number of grants to encourage UK-based performers, ensembles, venues and festivals to put exceptional yet overlooked music by historic women composers at the heart of their programming, and take pride in telling audiences about such composers worth discovering. We trust this will not only be valued fuel for music-makers; we look forward to telling music-lovers about the initiatives we support, opening their ears to captivating music they have likely not heard before.

The closing date for applications is 11am on Tuesday 31 March 2026. In continued consultation with Diana Ambache, we look forward to evolving the scope of what we offer in the years ahead.

This year, we expect to offer a total of £16,000 in grants, likely split between 3 or 4 recipients, with grants in the region of £3,000 to £5,000 each. The closing date is 11am on Tuesday 31 March 2026. We regret we cannot consider applications received after this. We expect to let applicants know outcomes in June 2026. Given this, activity for which you are applying should not be scheduled to take place prior to July 2026.

info