Apply for a grant – The Commission Grant Committee of Teosto

The Commission Grant Committee of Teosto seeks to promote Finnish music by distributing grants for composition commissions of a professional nature.

Finnish music here means works by Finnish composers and arrangers. Both Finnish citizens and others permanently resident in Finland qualify in this respect as Finnish.

Grants are awarded on the basis of applications handled by an artistic committee of experts. These experts are appointed for two years at a time by the Board of Teosto on the recommendation of the Finnish Music Publishers’ Association, the Society of Finnish Composers and the Guild of Light Music Composers and Authors in Finland.

Applications must be submitted before the execution/publication of a project. Grants are not paid until the composition has been completed and the score has been presented to the committee.

Applications for commission grants must be made on the Commission Grant Committee’s own form.

Info for applicants

The aim of these grants is to encourage commissions and hence the composition of new music.

The commissioner, not the composer, must apply for the grant. The commissioner may be a body or a private individual who agrees to commission a work, to assume responsibility for the production of the performance material, the performance of the work and payment of the statutory social security contributions related to the fee. The composer must be a Finnish citizen or active in Finland.

Grants are awarded primarily to individual musicians and to ensembles, choirs, orchestras and others not in receipt of sizeable public funding. Well-established applicants may also be eligible for grants if they agree to cover at least 50 per cent of the commission costs by some means other than the commission grant. In other respects the commission fund aims to pay the commission fee in full. A single grant may not, without special reason, be worth more than € 5.000.

Grants are not awarded for commissions that have for the most part been carried out by the deadline for applications. Grants are awarded only to cover the commission fee, not, for example, for the costs of producing performance material.

With the application the commissioner must submit the commission agreement made with the composer or a letter of intent stating the instruments for which the work is to be scored, the duration of the work, the commission fee, the date by which the composition must be completed and the date by which the commissioner agrees to have the work premiered. The letter of intent must state that the agreement will be effective on condition that the Commission Grant Committee of Teosto awards the grant applied for.

With the application the commissioner may submit one score as a demonstration of the composer’s work and a brief CV of the composer to be commissioned. This is always advisable in the case of a composer who may not be familiar to the commission committee.

If the commissioner is entered on the preliminary tax withholding register, Teosto will pay the grant to the commissioner, who must withhold the tax on paying the composer’s fee.

If the commissioner is a private person or is not entered on the preliminary tax withholding register or is not resident in Finland, Teosto will pay the grant to the composer direct, withholding the tax on the commissioner’s behalf.

Teosto will pay the commissioner the grant or the composer the commission fee once the secretary of the commission committee is satisfied that the work has been completed and corresponds to the application. Should the work differ unreasonably from the information supplied in the application, LUSES will have the right to withhold payment of the grant.

Any disputes arising between the commissioner and the composer may hinder the payment of the grant.

Teosto may also refuse to pay the grant should the deadlines for the completion of the composition stated in the application/agreement be unreasonably exceeded. The commissioner must inform Teosto of any changes in the completion or premiere date. Teosto will pay the grant on receipt of a valid account from the commissioner/composer of why the dates have been changed.

The decision of the commission grant committee is final.