We write, as major learned societies and advocates for Music in the United Kingdom, profoundly disturbed at how the proposed termination of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants will affect the operations of the American Musicological Society (AMS) to the tune of around $363,000 in anticipated income over the next two years. The AMS, more than ninety years old, is a world-leading organization in the support and promotion of musical cultures, and a beacon of light to music scholars across the globe. Among its many activities, the AMS holds major international conferences, proactively promotes scholarship of all kinds, supports graduate students through fellowship programmes, offers travel grants to facilitate research, provides publication subventions, supports top-quality publications, and recognizes outstanding written scholarship and performing activities through awards that are among the most prestigious in musical scholarship. It is, in short, a model humanities organization – not only for those in the US, but also for the rest of us around the world.
AMS activities and initiatives directly affected by the proposed termination of NEH grants are among its most far-reaching, culturally enriching, innovative, and exciting. The ‘Many Musics of America’ series of events, highlighting the richness and diversity of America’s musical traditions since 1776, reaches every corner of the US, exploring (for example) mission music in San Antonio, TX, gospel music in Pittsburgh, PA, and sea shanties in Salem, MA. Interested musicians and non-musicians across the nation are thus afforded opportunities to experience and understand American music in direct and meaningful ways; the absence of NEH support seriously threatens the proactive and energetic music engagement associated with this initiative. The long-running series ‘Music of the United States of America’ (MUSA), reflecting the richness of America’s heritage through the publication of high-quality, meticulously researched scores, also immeasurably enhances understanding of US musical cultures – among performers, scholars and the public at large who attend and participate in concerts and events at which the scores are used. Again, the termination of NEH support will significantly endanger American promotion of American music.
As always, the AMS is at the forefront of musical and cultural developments, and continually looks to play an even-greater role in the promotion of music to US citizens and others around the world. One grant to be withdrawn by the NEH is for the ambitious and stimulating ‘Music Means: A Digital Platform for Exploring Music and Meaning in America’ – a public-facing project about the creation, expression, interaction, inheritance and identity of music and musicians as they connect to the story of America and its peoples. Another, ‘Musics of the United States: Telling Our Stories’ scheduled for summer 2025, will invite Higher Education faculty to explore the teaching and dissemination of complex and interwoven stories of American musical cultures and communities. In a characteristically forward-thinking manner, the AMS is redoubling its efforts in the area of musical and cultural education and edification in order to enhance the musical lives of scholars, students, and the general public. That such activity should be stifled by financial developments at the NEH is nothing short of cultural vandalism.
Eviscerating cuts to the exemplary and visionary work of the AMS – at a time of considerable threats to humanities organizations and education across the US and around the world – are extraordinarily damaging and counter-productive. We urge you and your organizations in the strongest terms to oppose and attempt to reverse the NEH cuts and thereby to continue financial support for the AMS’s remarkable, musically- and culturally-enhancing work.
The Royal Musical Association
Conservatoires UK
Music Mark
In addition to the above statement, if you are a US citizen, we urge you to write to your representatives in Congress to protest the NEH cuts and their effects on AMS, using the downloadable template provided here.