Grants of between £2,000 and £6,000 are available to support touring and greater access to excellent live period classical music to all sectors of society across the United Kingdom.
The Continuo Foundation is a recently formed grant-making charity (founded in 2020) that aims to enable a flourishing of live period performances across the UK, and helps ensembles (3 or more people) and musicians to engage, inspire and grow audiences of all ages. Its grants support touring and greater access to excellent classical music to all sectors of society, enriching lives and improving the financial sustainability of ensembles and the freelance musicians of today and tomorrow.
Round 11 of the Continuo Foundation’s grant programme continues the eligibility category first introduced in 2022 to support emerging ensembles seeking to establish themselves. Continuo is keen to enable these musicians, many of whom are graduates from 2020-2024, to gain the visibility and performing experience needed to build their careers.
Grants can be used by ensembles to (please note that this is not an exclusive list):
- Create a filmed concert which can be used to generate further touring opportunities.
- Fund a chamber recital series.
- Fund a new project where there is uncertainty about audience size.
- Provide the funding to mobilise a performance that is at risk of being cancelled, and/or
- Tour an existing programme to new UK locations.
Grants of between £2,000 and £6,000 (previously £2,000 - £8,000) are available to professional classical ensembles to mobilise projects of outstanding artistic merit and creating meaningful work for freelance period musicians. The Foundation normally sets aside a budget of £100,000 for each grants round.
Applicants are normally expected to make a matched funding contribution. This should be at least 10% of the total project cost.
Projects should take place between Friday 1 May to Monday 30 November 2026.
A map showing the location of supported projects can be found on the Foundation's website.
Applications are normally assessed against the following criteria:
- The artistic merit and originality of the proposed project
- The extent to which new live or virtual audiences will be engaged.
- The extent to which the project proposed is realistic and will contribute to establishing the group's credentials and visibility (recently formed ensembles only), and
- The number of instrumentalists engaged and the proportion of the grant funds dedicated to artists’ fees.
Further information, guidance and an online application form for Round 11 can be found on the Foundation’s website.
The next deadline for applications is Thursday 12 February 2026 at 23:59, with decisions expected to be announced by the end of March 2026.