Hamburgische Kulturstiftung — Project Funding for Musicians

Hamburg's cultural foundation pays for one-off projects by artists in the first years of their professional working life — a concert series, a festival, a music-theatre piece, a performance in an unlikely venue. Music is one of seven eligible fields alongside visual art, performing arts, literature, film, photography and interdisciplinary work, and the foundation says plainly that it is looking for experimental and innovative approaches rather than safe ones.

You do not need to live in Hamburg, but the centre of gravity of your artistic work should be there, and the project should be developed and presented in the city. There is no age limit; what matters is that you are early in a professional freelance career. Student projects, amateur work, purely commercial projects and revivals of shows already performed are all out. The foundation does not give stipends, and it does not fund recordings, catalogues or running costs like rent — artists' books are the one exception.

The maximum request is €15,000 and it is a project grant, not a stipend or a reimbursement. You are not required to put in your own money, but the foundation is donation-funded and openly expects you to be seeking money elsewhere too.

Applications go through an online form plus a PDF of up to 15 pages: project description, audience, dates, collaborators with short CVs, a full income-and-expenditure plan marking which funding is confirmed, and work samples. There are three deadlines a year, decisions roughly ten weeks later, and the process is in German.