There is no minimum ensemble size or institutional requirement for commissioning a new work.

Recent commissions have come from a Nebraska high school celebrating its graduating class, an Episcopal parish in Georgia, a state ACDA chapter, and university and community ensembles. What they had in common was not budget or size. It was a specific occasion and a clear sense of what they wanted the piece to do.

If you have that, you have enough to begin the conversation.

1. Initial consultation to determine voicing, duration, theme or text, and timeline.
2. Signed agreement and nonrefundable 50% deposit.
3. Text selection and artistic outline shared with the commissioner. Any licensing fees for copyrighted texts are the commissioner’s responsibility and are billed at cost.
4. Draft score delivered for review and feedback.
5. Final engraved score delivered as a PDF.
6. Remaining balance due upon final delivery.

Commission timelines are flexible, and I welcome both near-term projects and those planned well in advance. Depending on the scope of the work and current availability, an octavo-length commission may be completed within several weeks or a few months. Additional lead time can be helpful for text selection, collaboration, fundraising, or consortium-building, but prospective commissioners are encouraged to inquire regardless of timeline. Expedited projects may include an additional fee and are accepted subject to availability.

A commission does not necessarily require an existing budget line. Many projects are funded through a consortium, donor support, community fundraising, or grant funding—and the cost is often more manageable than directors initially expect.

Consortium: Several ensembles share a single fee. A $3,000 commission divided among five programs is $600 each, and every participating ensemble is named in the score and has the opportunity to perform the work with its own singers.

Individual donor: Many commissions are underwritten by one family or business connected to the program. The donor can be recognized permanently in the score’s dedication—a lasting form of acknowledgment that few other gifts can offer.

Community fundraising: Choir families, alumni, and boosters will often give toward a piece written for their own ensemble when they would not give toward general operating costs. Contributors can be listed on a dedication page in the score.

Grants: State arts councils and local foundations regularly fund the creation of new work. I have been principal investigator on multiple arts grants and am glad to supply the project description, artistic rationale, and composer materials a strong application requires.

Copyright remains with the composer, and any subsequent publication is at the composer’s sole discretion.

Commissioners receive the right to:

• Present the premiere performance
• Reproduce the score in the quantity needed for the commissioning ensemble or consortium
• Be permanently acknowledged as the commissioner in the score and in any subsequent published edition