There has been such fantastic support for our Corona Commissions campaign that we have raised our target from £4,000 to £5,000, so that we can commission more choral works. Read more about the campaign below. As before, we pledge that every penny you give will go to composers whose livelihoods are at risk in the Covid-19 crisis.

Musicians across the world have had to give up making music together as we observe social distancing to keep each other safe. For composers this has meant that from one week to the next, their livelihoods have been threatened as people stop performing their music, commissions are cancelled due to uncertainty of events taking place, and few new commissions come in.

As a choir, we regularly commission new works from composers. Our standard repertoire of classical German music has been enriched by over 30 pieces written specially for us, which have been premiered at the Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St-Martin-in-the Fields and recorded on CD.

But commissioning composers costs money. With your support we will engage composers to write new choral pieces for our upcoming concerts. We will target your donations at freelance composers, who earn their living by writing music and have their livelihood threatened by the COVID-19 crisis.

How many pieces will we commission?

With this campaign, we aim to support as many composers as possible. We anticipate spending between £250 and £500 on each piece of music.

Every donation, however small, will make a difference. This is a difficult time for everyone, but please give what you can to help live music survive the lockdown.

We are doing our bit too. Several of our own choir members have already contributed, and our Musical Director, Barbara Höfling, has committed to donate her entire choir income for the duration of the lockdown.

If you are considering making a gift to cover the commissioning of a whole new work, please get in touch with Barbara Höfling to discuss possibilities, on info[at]deutscherchorlondon[dot]org[dot]uk.

Background to the composers' struggle

Composers rely heavily on having work commissioned and on choirs and orchestras performing their music. They usually get paid per piece of music, with royalties each time it is performed, so even in normal times their income is volatile. In times of COVID-19 a lot of them are without income.

UK musicians have lost £13.9m in earnings due to the COVID-19 crisis, the Musicians Union estimates. Many are not eligible for the Government's support for the self-employed and fall through the cracks. This was proven by the fact that after just one tweet about this campaign, 70 composers responded looking for work.