Music nonprofit Black Fret awards $260,000 to Austin artists, changes name

Deborah Sengupta Stith, Austin American-Statesman
·2 min read
An ensemble of Austin artists performs Dec. 3 at the Black Fret Ball at ACL Live. Along with announcing their annual awards, the group announced a name change, to Sonic Guild.
An ensemble of Austin artists performs Dec. 3 at the Black Fret Ball at ACL Live. Along with announcing their annual awards, the group announced a name change, to Sonic Guild.

At the ninth annual Black Fret Ball on Saturday, the Austin music nonprofit awarded $260,000 to 20 Austin artists.

Individual artists and groups who received grants of $10,000 or $15,000 at the event include dreamy R&B artist Mélat, hip-hop acts Abhi the Nomad and Blackillac, fuzz rockers Annabelle Chairlegs, and Americana act Bonnie Whitmore and the Sad Girls.

This year, in addition to the local grants, the nonprofit teamed up with Hopdoddy's Burger Bar to award $47,000 to artists in cities around the country including Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Whitmore also received a grant through the Hopdoddy's partnership. Those awards were presented at an event last month.

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Black Fret founders Colin Kendrick and Matt Ott used Saturday's gala to announce a rebranding for the organization, which is now called Sonic Guild.

“As we enter our 10th season of supporting local musicians around the country, we have decided toadopt a new identity that more clearly expresses our mission and vision,” Kendrick said in a news release about the name change.

“We will always be thankful for our origin as Black Fret but are excited that as we become Sonic Guild our message of supporting local music as the art it truly is will be heard nationwide.”

Kendrick and Ott founded Black Fret in 2014 with a mission to expand the patronage model that funds classical music to popular sounds.

"It's a new generation of donors," Kendrick told the Statesman at the time. "The money we're starting to raise is money that might have traditionally gone to other art forms."

The two men hoped to foster "a new era of philanthropy in Austin," Ott said in 2014.

With Saturday night's total, the organization's combined grants and payments to Austin artists is over $3.5 million. In addition, the nonprofit has made another $1.5 million in payments to Austin area music businesses over nine seasons.

In addition to the Austin chapter of Sonic Guild, Kendrick and Ott started a Seattle group, launched in 2020, and a Colorado group in 2021.

Here's the full list of artists who received awards at the Black Fret Ball on Saturday:

Abhi the Nomad

Annabelle Chairlegs

Aubrey Hays

Blackillac

Bonnie Whitmore

Buffalo Nichols

Daniel Fears

Graham Weber

Indoor Creature

Jo James

KVN

Me Nd Adam

Mélat

Money Chicha

Natalie Price

Nik Parr and The Selfless Lovers

Pussy Gilette

Quentin and the Past Lives

Scott Strickland

Urban Heat

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Black Fret changes name, gives $260,000 to Austin musicians