Composer Charlotte Bray Sells New Work, Bar-by-Bar, for Music in the Round Residency

An interesting article over at The Guardian reports on Brit composer Charlotte Bray's novel idea for fundraising her latest piece. She is selling it. One bar at a time.

Yup, for £10 anyone can buy a bar from a work Bray has composed for her residency with Music in the Round at the new Doncaster arts center CAST. Apparently, there are some 300 bars in the work, with plenty still up for grabs.

It's a rather lovely idea (and the piece gets played no matter what). And it's the latest in several lovely and unusual funding ideas over recent years.

Perhaps the most spectacular success was that of pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who went out herself and found funding for the recording and promotion of Bach's Goldberg Variations. The album, released by Telarc, was a huge chart-topping, critic-pleasing success (Dinnerstein has subsequently been signed by Sony).

The English violinist Ruth Palmer similarly found ways to self-finance her own debut disc. To wit, she won a Classical Brit award for best newcomer for her trouble.

There was also, but I forget who (and Google is being stubbornly unhelpful), an artist who sold shares in herself--not unlike the old "Bowie bonds" of yore. In other words, those who bought shares would share in her success, just as it would work for a small business. Clever!