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.

”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

”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

“A brilliant and unpretentious showcase for music in the new millennium.” The Guardian

“... The digital-only release is the first of a series giving precious recording exposure to composers with stars firmly on the rise.” WQXR

“The festival started… with the excellent ACO playing premieres of five diverse, fresh and inventive works, dynamically conducted by George Manahan. Young composers today… exude independence and feel entitled to draw from, borrow, use (or abuse) any style of contemporary music that interests them.” The New York Times

“That's why the American Composers Orchestra is so indispensible... the ACO fearlessly goes where others do not dare.” Sequenza 21

“The ACO is this nation's only orchestra dedicated to exclusive performance of new music, and as such is a treasure...it brings a great assurance and exuberance to its performances.” Fanfare

“One rather doubts that any of the New York season's upcoming orchestra concerts stands a chance of topping the sense of wonder, the excitement of discovery, and the shake-your-bootie, party-down attitude of the ACO's survey.” The Star Ledger

“If the Philharmonic seems to be coattailing, however gingerly, on the pioneering efforts of the American Composers Orchestra, that invaluable Johnny Appleseed of musical organizations is showing no signs of slacking with its concerts at Carnegie Hall.” The New York Observer

“The American Composers Orchestra has already done more to produce works by American composers than any other organization.” The New York Times

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