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American Composers Orchestra

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) is the only orchestra in the world dedicated to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers. Through concerts at Carnegie Hall and other venues, recordings, internet and radio broadcasts, educational programs, New Music Readings, and commissions, ACO identifies today’s brightest emerging composers, champions prominent established composers as well as those lesser-known, and increases regional, national, and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music, reflecting geographic, stylistic, and temporal diversity. ACO also serves as an incubator of ideas, research, and talent, as a catalyst for growth and change among orchestras, and as an advocate for American composers and their music. To date, ACO has performed music by 700 American composers, including nearly 300 world premieres and newly commissioned works. ACO programs seek to innovate and experiment, educate students and the public, and open the orchestra to diverse new influences and audiences.

Awards

Among the honors ACO has received are a special award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a proclamation from the New York City Council, and the American Music Center's Letter of Distinction "for unique dedication to the music of American composers." BMI has honored ACO for its outstanding contribution to American music. ACO has been awarded the ASCAP annual prize for adventurous programming 36 times, and has been singled out by ASCAP as "the orchestra that has done the most for new American music in the United States."


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Event

June 5-6: First Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings presented by The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and American Composers Orchestra

June 5-6: First Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Readings presented by The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and American Composers Orchestra

Source: Jensen Artists

American Composers Orchestra (ACO) and The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University will present the first-ever Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI) Readings at Columbia University's Miller Theatre (Broadway at 116th St.) on June 5 at 2pm (working rehearsal) and June 6 at 7:30pm (run-through). Both events are free and open to the public, giving audiences a chance to look behind the scenes at the process involved in bringing brand new, stylistically diverse orchestral music to life. The JCOI Readings ...

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The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University & American Composers Orchestra Present First-Ever Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute

The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University & American Composers Orchestra Present First-Ever Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute

Source: Jensen Artists

July 20-24, 2010

34 jazz composers ranging in age from 17 to 67 years old converge on the Columbia University Campus to explore writing for the symphony orchestra

Culminates with two public concerts: Wet Ink Friday, July 23, 2010 at 8:00pm

American Composers Orchestra Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 8:00pm

Miller Theatre at Columbia University (116th Street & Broadway, NYC) Tickets: $25 each concert, at millertheatre.com or at ...

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American Composers Orchestra Kicks Off Orchestra Underground in Zankel Hall

American Composers Orchestra Kicks Off Orchestra Underground  in Zankel Hall

Source: All About Jazz

On Friday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m., Carnegie Hall presents the American Composers Orchestra, led by Principal Guest Conductor Steven Sloane, in a program that includes world premiere performances of four new works in Zankel Hall. Composers join the orchestra for the evening's program, entitled Hybridity, which will feature percussionist Susie Ibarra's Pintados Dream (The Painted's Dream) with visual projections by Makoto Fujimura; saxophonist Steve Coleman's The Illusion of the Body; Ken Thomson's Wait Your Turn, which features special guest ...

"the American Composers Orchestra has brought to the city a repertory of music of our time which leaves all the major American orchestras far behind." The New York Times

"If orchestras are more accommodating to living composers today, the ACO can rightfully claim at least some of the credit." Steve Smith, Time Out New York

"...the organization exists to upend the status quo with symphonic magnitude." Philadelphia Inquirer

"Over the past decade, a new generation of composers and performers has arisen, refusing to submit to genre boundaries or dusty ideological battles, jacking up the cool quotient on New York's new-music scene. The SONiC Festival… aims to immerse audiences in this new paradigm." Time Out New York

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