The Joel Brauer Fund for New Music

The Joel Brauer Fund for New Music: New Works Created for Inspiration, Unity and Abiding Love was created through a gift from Mary and Phil Delk in honor of Mary’s brother Joel, a Lutheran minister and life-long lover of choral music. The Joel Brauer Fund will enable Conspirare to commission new works, particularly concert-length pieces. Conspirare will seek out highly qualified, diverse contributors including composers and authors and nurture their work.

Conspirare believes in the integrity and power of new music and its place in vast choral repertoire. Conspirare is honored to partner with the Delk family to establish the Joel Brauer Fund for New Music, ensuring Conspirare is positioned at the forefront of commissioning. The music created by the fund builds on Conspirare’s 20+ year history of commissioning, performing,  recording, and advocating for choral works that reach a worldwide audience. Previously commissioned composers include Andrea Clearfield, Reena Esmail, Donald Grantham, Jocelyn Hagen, Ted Hearne, Robert Kyr, Kevin Puts, Jake Runestad, and Kile Smith.

“All music was new at one time,” Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare’s artistic director, says. “The Joel Brauer Fund for New Music embodies the values of wonder, acceptance, love, and communion that Joel lived by. With this gift, we will expand our capacity to regularly commission and perform new choral music and contribute to contemporary choral music available to choirs around the world.”