SUPPORT

In 2002, the quartet incorporated as a nonprofit organization called ETHEL’s Foundation for the Arts (EFFA). EFFA’s mission is to promote contemporary concert music and expand and diversify audiences for it through adventurous performances, cutting-edge repertoire, and innovative outreach programs.

Since then, EFFA’s many achievements have included:

• Commissions of 153 new works by 59 emerging and established composers
• Premieres, by ETHEL, of 225 works since 2005.
• Adding more than 50 original works by ETHEL members to string quartet repertoire
• Performances, residencies, and masterclasses by ETHEL at over 100 colleges and universities
• Music education at a range of New York schools including Avenues, Berkeley Carroll, Trinity, PS 75, PS 87, and Collegiate; after-school music education including the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Project, Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Brooklyn Youth Music Project; and post-secondary residencies and master classes at Brooklyn College, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Peabody Institute, and Mannes School of Music.
• Mentoring by ETHEL for over 200 young Hopi, Navajo, Chickasaw and Pima composers, and in-school performances and demonstrations in 12 reservation schools each year from 2005 – 2014.
• Releasing the first commercial recording of works by American Indian students
• Outreach performances at museums, reservations, veterans, community, and senior centers
• Performances by ETHEL in 45 out of 50 U.S. states and 12 countries
• Nine national ETHEL tours
• Nine ETHEL recordings; featured on 22 additional recordings

Join EFFA in supporting this important music – by commissioning artists who create it, teaching young people who are learning it, and reaching new audiences who love it!

ETHEL would also like to thank the institutions and individuals who support the mission and activities of ETHEL’s Foundation for the Arts, including:

This program is supported, in part, by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. ETHEL is most grateful for support from The Board of ETHEL’s Foundation for the Arts; The Aaron Copland Fund for Music; The Amphion Foundation; The Lily Auchinloss Foundation; Bloomberg Philanthropies; Chamber Music America; The Cheswatyr Foundation, Double R Foundation; The Endeavor Foundation; The Greenwall Foundation; Howard Gilman Foundation; The Jerome Foundation; LEF Foundation; Meet the Composer; Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; The Multi-Arts Production Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Rockefeller Foundation; The National Endowment for the Arts; The Netherland-America Foundation; New Music USA; The New York State Council on the Arts; The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; OZArts, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; The Scherman Foundation; The September 11th Fund; and the Thompson Family Foundation.

ETHEL’S +FACTOR AWARD

Each year, ETHEL and ETHEL’s Foundation for the Arts present the +Factor Award to honor one or more outstanding individuals who excel in collaborating, connecting, and sharing artistic experience, and whose singular vision recognizes and catalyzes creativity in others. Here are the past honorees:

2014 +Factor Award: Limor Tomer
2015 +Factor Award: John Schaefer
2016 +Factor Award: Joseph V. Melillo
2017 +Factor Award: Rachel Chanoff; Special Recognition: Cece Wasserman
2018 +Factor Award: Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe
2019 +Factor Award: Elmore DeMott, Gina Gibney
2023 +Factor Award: James Roe, Elizabeth Streb