New Music Theatre Fund

The ‘Fonds Neues Musiktheater’ (New Music Theatre Fund) was established together with the state of NRW as a funding programme for contemporary and recent music theatre at the municipal and state theatres of North Rhine-Westphalia, as a special programme of the Ministry at the NRW KULTURsekretariat with its theatre and orchestra-sponsoring cities.

Composition commissions, opera and dance productions with new and more recent music as well as their revivals are subsidised. The productions must involve the theatre's own ensembles such as choir, orchestra and vocal ensemble. At least six performances are also required.

Municipal and regional theatres with their own ensemble from NRW are eligible to apply. Guest productions are excluded from funding. In principle, there is no limit to the amount of funding. Depending on the production requirements in theatre practice, funding can be requested for project planning and implementation periods of up to three years.

The NRW Ministry of Culture provides the theatres with special annual funding of 250,000 euros to endow the fund. Since 2001, more than 190 productions have been realised with the support of this funding instrument. In autumn 2024, the German staged premiere of György Kurtág's opera ‘Fin de Partie’ at Theater Dortmund, which was supported by the fund, was awarded the German theatre prize DER FAUST.