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The Ö÷²¥´óÐã Performing Arts Fund today announces a brand new scheme for choirs called Choral Ambition.

The scheme provides funding for the support and development of choirs across the UK and Northern Ireland and opens for applications today, Monday 7 September, and closes on Friday 30 October 2009.

The scheme is open to adult choirs of any genre – children's choirs (although not school choirs primarily funded by the LEA), choirs that are private and independently constituted, and choirs that perform any genre of music.

A choir must be a group of eight or more individual singers who meet and rehearse towards a live performance. They must sing at least two parts. This should be taken to include vocal groups as well.

Choirs can be accompanied or a cappella and performances must be open to the public and must be based in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

In total £200,000 in funding will be awarded. The maximum amount available to a single choir will be £4,000 and the minimum amount awarded will be £500.

The grant can be used for commissioning new music, training and development, master-classes and workshops or projects to attract new members.

Miriam O'Keeffe, Project Manager of the Performing Arts Fund, said: "The Ö÷²¥´óÐã Performing Arts Fund is committed to helping individuals and groups to reach their musical potential by providing funding and support.

"Following the success of Last Choir Standing, and building on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's long association with singing through programmes such as Choir Of The Year on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 3, The Choir on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two, Songs Of Praise and the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Proms, the fund in association with Making Music is delighted to launch this new scheme that will award funding to choirs.

"Funding for training and development as well as commissioning of new music will nurture and sustain choirs and singing groups of every shape and sound, in diverse communities across the UK, allowing them to stretch their creative wings and continue to thrive."

Robin Osterley, Chief Executive of Making Music, the largest umbrella organisation supporting choirs in the UK, said: "Making Music is delighted that the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Performing Arts Fund has made this substantial sum available to improve choirs and help them commission new works.

"We are also very pleased that our long-standing partnership with the Ö÷²¥´óÐã has enabled us to play a significant role in shaping and helping with the scheme to maximise its benefit to the choral sector.

"It's a great scheme and we are confident that it will provide long-lasting benefits to choirs up and down the land."

Howard Goodall, composer, broadcaster and National Ambassador for Singing, said: "There are not many activities that bring people together, regardless of age, background or experience – but singing is one of them. Amateur choirs flourish across the UK – often only supported financially by choir members themselves.

"The Ö÷²¥´óÐã Performing Arts Fund's new scheme – Choral Ambition – gives a very welcome boost to this passionate and often widely unrecognized movement. Through its financial commitment, Choral Ambition gives all sorts of choirs the potential to grow, be creative, unlock and develop their members' talents, ensuring that this enduring pastime retains its key place in the UK's creative community."

Choirs can apply online at bbc.co.uk/performingartsfund/choral_ambition/.

More information is available at bbc.co.uk/sing.

Notes to Editors

The Ö÷²¥´óÐã Performing Arts Fund helps aspiring music-makers and performers looking for a way to get ahead.

The Ö÷²¥´óÐã Performing Arts Fund is a registered charity, number 1101276. The charity (formerly Fame Academy Bursary Trust) was set up in 2003 within the Ö÷²¥´óÐã.

The fund receives revenue from the voting lines of Ö÷²¥´óÐã One entertainment programmes that seek to find new performing talent (including Fame Academy, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and I'd Do Anything).

To date the fund has allocated £2.4m to fund young musicians, from a range of genres, to help them pursue their careers in music.

The fund's mission is to seek out and support excellent aspiring performers and those directly supporting performing artists who, for reasons of lack of existing opportunity, personal background or circumstance, would not have been able to achieve their most ambitious goals, or their talent's greatest potential without the fund's support or intervention.

Making Music, the National Federation of Music Societies, is one of the largest arts umbrella organisations in the UK, representing and supporting more than 2,800 voluntary music groups.

Its members include choirs, orchestras, music promoters, jazz and wind bands, community festivals, samba groups, sitar ensembles, barbershop choruses and brass bands.

It provides a comprehensive range of financial, artistic and administrative services, as well as development and training opportunities to member groups. Making Music also lobbies on behalf of its members to national and local government and other agencies.

Collectively, Making Music's 200,000 musicians and music lovers present around 10,000 concerts each year to an audience of 1.5 million people.

KT