Commissioning Music
If you clicked onto this page, then you are at least curious about doing something marvelous -- commission a piece of music.
The best source of information I am aware of in this regard is Meet the Composer, an organization devoted to bringing audiences and composers together. The following links take you to their site where you can read about how to commission music, what standard rate ranges are, and the myriad benefits of commissioning music.
If you are a performer, one way to "afford" a commission is to do it with other performers -- its called a "joint commission" or a "consortium commission." For example, if a commissioning fee is $10,000, and 10 soloists agreed to concurrent premieres, then the load is only $1,000 each -- which is more much more maneagable. There are also myriad grants available to the performer and the composer through various organizations, including state and local arts organizations, schools, instrument manufacturers, music organizations and music fraterities/sororities among many others. And believe it or not, individuals you know may also be willing to contribute funds for a commission if you educate them on its importance and contrinution to your career.
Please look over the materials on the Meet the Composer site and then consider commissioning a creative work from someone -- anyone whose work you admire -- a painter, poet, sculptor or composer --- its a very cool thing to do!
Here are the Meet the Composer Links:
Prelude to "An Individual's Guide to Commissioning Music"