CoMA’s vision is for contemporary music to be open to everyone, celebrating participation in new music-making as a meaningful and essential part of our lives

“CoMA proves that you don’t have to be a professional musician to be an artist.”
(Héloïse Werner, Composer)

Contemporary Music for All (CoMA) is a bold participatory new-music charity, where music-makers of all backgrounds, ages and abilities build a culture of musical participation together. From ensembles to summer schools, festivals, sector conferences, and our extensive music score catalogue, CoMA’s activity is a catalyst for cultivating joyful musical participation with amateur, emerging and professional music-makers, supporting diverse living composers in creating innovative new work and championing diversity in the new music sector. 

For 32 years, CoMA has occupied a unique position within the sector, simultaneously offering grassroots participatory experiences in contemporary classical music to communities, whilst supporting emerging musicians and composers in advancing their careers, whilst also hosting important sector conversations focused on accessibility. With creativity and accessibility at the centre of our practice, CoMA delivers music programmes across the UK and Europe.  

The lifeblood of CoMA’s work are our 15 local ensembles - these volunteer-led metropolitan and regional bodies of local community musicians offer a year-round platform for amateur musicians to develop their creative skills, push their technical facility and challenge the conventional boundaries of creativity within community music-making. 

CoMA has commissioned 600+ works, creating a unique catalogue of 900+ contemporary classical works suitable for amateur musicians. We have embraced a flexible instrumentation approach to commissioning as a catalyst for change - a body of repertoire that is flexible in instrumentation & ability. The flexibility of this repertoire makes the works appealing to CoMA ensembles, schools & professional ensembles, encouraging them to explore new music and increasing composers’ opportunities of having their works re-performed.

CoMA’s objectives are:

• To cultivate joyful musical participation through our network of inclusive ensembles of amateur, emerging and established music-makers of all backgrounds, ages and abilities

• To develop a catalogue of high-quality accessible flexibly-scored works by commissioning living composers, with the aim of breaking down access barriers to music-making

• To provide fun opportunities for music-makers to perform publicly and collaboratively, showcase works from CoMA’s catalogue and engage new audiences with our music

• To champion diversity in the participatory new music sector through creative programmes aimed at those traditionally underrepresented in this industry
  
  Tamara joined CoMA as Festival Director in February 2021, and in April 2022 stepped into the role of CEO & Artistic Director.

Learn more at:
www.coma.org