We’re delighted to announce that hcmf// has been selected as one of six national organisations to receive multi-year funding from The Hinrichsen Foundation, as part of a significant new investment in the UK’s contemporary and experimental music landscape.
Spanning three years (2025–2028), the funding arrives at a pivotal moment for the sector, and for hcmf//, as we continue to evolve our mission as a home for ambitious, radical music-making — and as a platform where composers, performers and audiences converge to share in new and often unexpected sonic experiences.
Photo: The Carice Singers © Lidia Crisafulli
This partnership will allow us to deepen our long-standing commitment to UK-based music creators, enabling us to more sustainably commission, produce and present new work within the annual festival. It will also support our efforts to nurture long-term relationships with artists, create space for experimental development processes, and engage a broader and more diverse audience with the most vital new work being made today.
“Our partnership with The Hinrichsen Foundation will enable vital nurturing of and investment in UK music creators within our annual festival programme, and we couldn’t be more grateful for their generous support.”
— Róisín Hughes, Executive Producer, hcmf//“The response to the Foundation’s multi-year partnerships grants shows that new and adventurous music is happening up and down the country, in rural communities and in major cities. Musicians, composers, producers and their supporters are constantly reaching diverse audiences. The appetite for innovative experiences is undimmed or growing even if support structures could and should be stronger. We’re delighted to be partnering with these organisations who champion the power of musical encounters and creative composition to open us to the world in unknown ways.”
— Ed McKeon, Chair, The Hinrichsen Foundation
Photo: Brìghde Chaimbeul © Jonny Ashworth
The Hinrichsen Foundation’s new multi-year scheme represents a bold and much-needed intervention in the UK’s new music ecology — affirming the value of sustained, grassroots-to-international artistic work, and recognising the importance of shared infrastructures and community across the sector.
As one of the few UK festivals wholly dedicated to contemporary and experimental music, hcmf// is committed to being a space where urgent and adventurous work can emerge — a place where risk is welcomed, new ideas are tested, and artists are given the time and resources to realise their most ambitious projects.
Photo: Córas Trio
We’re honoured to be partnering with The Hinrichsen Foundation and joining a national cohort of like-minded organisations — including NMC Recordings, sound, The Night With…, PRXLUDES and the London Symphony Orchestra — all working to reimagine what’s possible for new music in the UK.
Our sincere thanks to The Hinrichsen Foundation for their belief in our work, and in the power of contemporary music to spark dialogue, challenge convention, and expand our sense of what the world can sound like.