GrantRadar

Dr Radcliffe's Trust

Radcliffe Trust Music Scheme

Project grants, usually £2,500-£5,000, for UK organisations supporting classical music performance and training, especially chamber music, composition and music education, including music for people with special needs, youth orchestras and bursaries for UK students on courses and summer schools. Charities, CICs, CIOs, other not-for-profits, and quartets and ensembles may apply; individuals may not. Two rounds a year: the next window opens 1 November 2026 and closes 31 January 2027, for projects starting from July 2027.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
£2,500 – £5,000
Deadline
105 days left
31 January
Effort
Moderate
full application with documents

Who can apply

  • UK-based charities, not-for-profit or exempt organisations, including CICs and CIOs, and quartets and ensembles; not individuals or individual mainstream primary and secondary schools
  • The application must be for a specific project
  • If you have had a successful application, at least a year must have passed (or the funded project be complete); an organisation that has had three years of consecutive funding must take a one-year break
  • You must confirm you have appropriate safeguarding policies

What it funds

Classical music performance and training, especially chamber music, composition and music education, considered under eight headings:

  • Composition and contemporary music (for commissions the lead composer must be named)
  • Bursaries for courses and summer schools, limited to UK-based students
  • Music therapy / special needs
  • Academic research / projects
  • Youth orchestras
  • Performance projects
  • Educational projects, excluding applications from individual mainstream primary and secondary schools
  • Miscellaneous

a reasonable management fee for project administration may be included. Bursaries and other support fees are normally paid to the training organisation.

What it will not fund

  • Operating costs (beyond a reasonable project management fee)
  • Competitions
  • Capital projects
  • Projects which mainly involve popular music
  • Applications from individual mainstream primary and secondary schools
  • Retrospective grants: projects starting before the Trustees' meeting (before 1 July for the January deadline, before 1 January for the July deadline), save in exceptional circumstances
  • General appeals or endowment funds
  • Individuals
  • Multi-year grants, except in exceptional circumstances
  • Late applications
  • More than one project per application, or more than one application per organisation per scheme per round

How to apply

  1. Check the general and Music scheme eligibility and exclusions, and read the FAQs
  2. Optionally download the Word version of the application questions to prepare (it cannot be submitted)
  3. Submit the online application form between 1 November 2026 and 31 January 2027
  4. The Music Panel considers eligible applications and makes recommendations to the Trustees, who meet in the summer (July)
  5. If successful, send a signed receipt on headed paper within 14 days of payment, and a report after one year or at the end of the project

the next window after that opens 1 May and closes 31 July, for the December meeting. You may apply to the Music and the Heritage & Crafts schemes in the same round if you say so on both applications. Questions: radcliffe@thetrustpartnership.com or 01285 841900.

Have ready

  • Organisation details, income and expenditure from the most recent audited accounts, and financial year end
  • Project description (400 words minimum) and summary (no more than 40 words), with start and end dates
  • Project budget: costs by heading and funding secured and pending by source
  • Accounts for the previous year, if not filed on the Charity Commission for England and Wales website

up to two photographs may be attached; the Trust will ask for brochures, programmes or CVs if it needs them.

More like this

Other grants open to organisations like yours.