The Bascom Little Fund is a charitable trust created for “the promotion, through the media of concerts, publications, recordings and otherwise, of serious and semi-popular music, newly-composed and performed in or near Cleveland, Ohio.”  “Near Cleveland Ohio” is in reference to the entire Northeast Ohio region.  Following the intent of the fund’s namesake, therefore, composers must currently reside in this region.

The Bascom Little Fund does not commission works by itself.  But it has, in the past, supported concerts by the Cleveland Composers Guild, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Cleveland Contemporary Players, the Akron New Music Festival, and music of regional composers performed by the Cleveland Orchestra.  Additionally, the Fund has supported concerts at Kent State University, Oberlin College, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Verb Ballet, among others.  The Fund has contributed to the funding of numerous recordings of regional composers and presently funds the WCLV radio program “Not the Dead White Male Composer’s Hour” on Sunday evenings at 9:30 p.m.  The Fund has also supported works by “young and emerging composers.”  The common denominator in all of the above is that the music performed is composed by Northeast Ohio composers.

A major objective of the Bascom Little Fund is to make the people of Northeast Ohio aware that there is a substantial amount of new music being written by very talented and committed composers in the region.  And more importantly, that much of this music is interesting, challenging, exciting and even beautiful.  It is the Bascom Little Fund’s mission to enable music to be performed that might not otherwise ever be played and ultimately reconnect audiences with the vast array of sound, tonalities, drama, passion, and exuberance that comprises truly modern music.