ACA History and Archives

Special Collections in Performing Arts

Score masters and copies from the ACA Collection, from the 1910s through the 1970s, are part of Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland. In addition to the scores, there are composer history files going back to the 1930s, with biographical information, concert notices, publishing histories, text permissions and general correspondence between ACA composers and ACA staff and founders.

With grants from the Amphion Foundation and the Copland Fund for Music, many of the items have been digitally scanned and are available for electronic access on request.

We are seeking additional funding to continue scanning and preparing music by early and mid 20th-century composers Bulent Arel, Otto Luening, Ben Weber, Karl and Vally Weigl, Miriam Gideon, Barney Childs, Dane Rudhyar, Robert Helps, Quincy Porter, Daniel Pinkham, Halsey Stevens, Hall Overton, Aaron Avshalomov, Jack Briece, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and many others. In addition, we are striving to engrave as many of the older handwritten scores as funding will permit, as the modern typeset editions are attractive to new generations of performers.

You can support these efforts by donating to the ACA scanning/engraving fund (all contributions received are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law).

Article reprints and full issues from the magazine series ACA Bulletins are now also available upon request for PDF download delivery. A list of all articles and authors can be downloaded here.

The Laurel Leaf Awards (1951-2012)

The Laurel Leaf Certificate of Appreciation was given by ACA nearly every year beginning in 1951, in recognition of "distinguished achievement in fostering and encouraging American music." Among the recipients of The Laurel Leaf over the years are the Juilliard String Quartet; the American Music Center; Leonard Slatkin; the Minnesota Composers Forum (American Composers Forum); WNYC, New York's public radio; and the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group.

Laurel Leaf Award Recipients

2012    Innova Recordings, Philip Blackburn, Director
2009    Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano
2008    Harold Rosenbaum, choral conductor
2007    Fred Sherry, cellist
2003    Greg Smith, The Gregg Smith Singers
1999    Lou Rodgers, Producing Artistic Director, Golden Fleece Ltd., The Composers Chamber Theatre
1998    David Alan Miller, Music Director, Albany Symphony Orchestra
1997    Speculum Musicae
1996    Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group; Ernest Fleischmann, Executive Vice President and Managing Director
1995    Minnesota Composers Forum
1994    Society for New Music; Syracuse- Neva Pilgrim, Program Director
1993    Leonard Slatkin
1992    Cleveland Chamber Symphony; Edwin London, Music Director
1991    The Boston Musica Viva; Richard Pittman, Music Director
1990    Center for New Music, University of Iowa / in memoriam,William Hibbard
1989    Betty Allen / Harlem School of the Arts / Mimi Stern-Wolfe
1988    American Music Center
1987    Francis Thorne, American Composers Orchestra; WNYC / New York Public Radio
1986    Raymond Des Roches, American Academy in Rome
1985    Nicolas Slonimsky, American Society of University Composers
1984    Opus One / Max Schubel, Mrs. Ernest S. Heller
1983    Lukas Foss
1982    The Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, Inc.
1981    Carter Harman / Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI)
1980    John Duffy / Meet the Composer, Joseph Machlis
1979    Ralph Shapey, Contemporary Chamber Players, University of Chicago
1978    James Dixon
1977    Arthur Weisberg, The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble
1976    Gunther Schuller
1975    Nelson Rockefeller
1974    Teresa Sterne
1973    The MacDowell Colony
1972    Leopold Stokowski
1971    Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University
1970    Otto Luening, Harris Danziger / Third Street Music Settlement School
1969    Group for Contemporary Music, Charles Wuorinen and Harvey Sollberger, directors
1968    Aaron Copland
1967    Radio Station WBAI, New York; Fromm Foundation, Composers Forum
1966    Henry A. Moe, Lawrence Morton
1965    Henry Cowell, Avery Claflin, Elizabeth Ames
1964    Walter Hinrichsen, Margaret L. Crofts, Max Pollikoff
1963    Carl Haverlin, Claire Reis
1962    Bethany Beardslee, Hugh Ross, Samuel Rosenbaum
1961    Mrs. Helen Thompson, William Strickland
1960    Howard Mitchell, Oliver Daniel
1959    Martha Graham, Jack Benny
1958    Thor Johnson
1957    Howard Hanson, Juilliard String Quartet
1956    Robert Whitney
1955    George Szell
1954    Green Bay (WI) Symphonietta
1953    Dr. Herman Neuman
1952    Maro and Anahid Ajemian
1951    Radio Station WGBH, Boston

ACA Concerts and Summer Series (2005-2022)

 

Browse past ACA performances on ACA's Youtube Channel.

 

Past Events

April 9 2022 (7pm) - Piano Night in New York
Tenri Cultural Center West 13 Street New York, NY.
Featuring: Steven Beck, piano Nathan Buckner, piano David Oei, piano Theo Rockas, piano. An evening of contemporary classical piano, with music of Steven Christopher Sacco.

October 19, 2021 - Rosalie Calabrese Memorial Concert
Featuring the music of Bruce Adolphe, Otto Luening, Michael Dellaira, Larry Thomas Bell, Francis Thorne, Beth Wieman, Joel Feigin, William Mayer, George Boziwick, and Irving Fine.

September 30, 2021 (8pm EST) - The Frahm-Lewis Trio
Featuring Ting-Lan Chen, violin, Noah Turner Rogoff, cello, and Nathan Buckner, piano, with baritone Andrew White. Live from the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Music of Beth Wiemann, Daniel Perlongo, Burton Beerman, Elizabeth R. Austin, Scott L. Miller, John D. McDonald, Darleen Mitchell, and Mark Zuckerman. Premiere on Facebook and Youtube.

April to December 2020 - Shelter Music Online
54 premiere recordings of music by American composers, including unheard works of Peter Westergaard, Jack Briece, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Miriam Gideon, Darleen Mitchell, Noel Farrand, Walter Mourant, Frederick Tillis, and much more. 

April 16, 2021 - Breaking the Bubble - Music from the Shelter Music Online Series
Including new music by Glenn Stallcop, Robert Scott Thompson, Alison Nowak, Allan Blank, and Edward Jacobs.  

February 23, 2020 (4pm) - Contemporary music for organ
Church of the Heavenly Rest, 1085 Fifth Avenue (at 90th Street) in New York City.
Featuring organist Brian Schober.

May 2, 2019 (8pm) - Tenth Intervention
DiMenna Center Benzaquen Hall
Music of Nathan Hall, Beth Wiemann, Daniel Tacke, and Matthew Welch.

April 22, 2019 (7:30pm) - Music of Vally Weigl, H. Leslie Adams, and Dorothy Rudd Moore
National Opera Center
Featuring Cheah-Chan Duo, Reut Ben Ze'ev, Margaret Kampmeier, Jose Pietri-Coimbre, Richard Liebowitz, and Halie Morris.

April 3, 2018 - An Evening with Darryl Taylor
National Opera Center
Featuring Darryl Taylor, countertenor Maria Thompson Corley, piano with Jennifer Peterson, harpsichord and Ezra Seltzer, baroque cello.
Music of H. Leslie Adams and more. 

Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017 - 8pm  ACA celebrates vocal music featuring Baritone Jeremy Huw Williams with pianist Paula Fan, National Opera Center, New York City.  Works by Gheorghe Costinescu, Michael Dellaira, Barbara Jazwinski, Darleen Mitchell, Brian Schober, Roger Vogel, and Beth Wiemann.

Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017 - 4pm  ACA celebrates vocal music from the ACA catalog and archives, artists TBD, National Opera Center, New York City. Works by Edward Jacobs, Richard Cameron-Wolfe, Richard Brooks, Burton Beerman, Elizabeth Austin, Jody Rockmaker, and Karl Kroeger.

Saturday, May 13, 2017, 7:30pm  ACA 80th Anniversary Celebration continues, with counter)induction - Symphony Space Thalia, New York City

Friday, May 12, 2017, 8pm    ACA 80th Anniversary Celebration begins with  ensemble Cantata Profana - DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York City

Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, 7:30pm  Founders Series, 2 Music of John Becker, Robert Ceely, Dane Rudhyar, Eleanor Cory, Scott L. Miller, Beth Wiemann, and Lionel Nowak. Symphony Space Thalia, New York City.

October 2, 2016  ACA Performance Funds - Ensemble Mise-En - Music of Ramon Zupko, John Gibson, and Robert Carl.

Wed., Sept. 21, 2016 80th Birthday Concert of Elliott Schwartz, Symphony Space Thalia, New York City.

Saturday, June 4, 2016  Iktus Percussion, The Firehouse New Music Series - Music of Alice Shields, Robert Carl, and more, at the Firehouse Space, Brooklyn.

Thursday, May 26, 2016  Founders Series, 1 Giant Half Steps - Music of Hall Overton, Miriam Gideon, Mark Zuckerman and more, at Spectrum-NYC.

May 2, 2016 ACA Performance Funds - Ensemble Loadbang - Music of Gary Philo and Beth Wiemann

Sunday, April 24, 2016  Brian Fennelly - Memorial Retrospective

Wednesday, March 30, 2016  Remembering John Eaton - Memorial Concert

October 23, 2015 NY Composers Circle Features Music of John Eaton, composer's 80th birthday celebration, Symphony Space.

June 9, 2015  CD Release Concert & Party for YAEL MANOR "Elixir" Music for Solo Piano; at The Concert Space at Beethoven Pianos, NYC, 7:30pm

May 29, 2015  TAK ensemble performing works from the ACA catalog, at DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cary Hall, 8pm

May 13,18,20, 2015  ACA Performance Funds:  Aaron Larget-Caplan performs music with guitar by Thomas L. Read at Russian-American Festival.

May 5, 2015 - Gheorghe Costinescu - 80th-Birthday Concert Retrospective, Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center, with Stephen Gosling, Lucy Shelton, and more.

March 14, 2015  New Mexico composers - Richard Cameron-Wolfe and friends, at DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City, March 14, 2015.

December 6, 2014  ACA concert and holiday party - solo piano music of Lionel Nowak and other ACA composers, with pianists Marc Peloquin, Yael Manor, and Christopher Oldfather. December 6th, 2014 7:30pm at Tenri Gallery in New York City.

Nov. 16, 2014  ACME (Arizona Contemporary Music Ensemble), directed by Simone Mancuso - November 16, 2014, 2pm at Katzin Concert Hall in Tempe, AZ. Music from the American Composers Alliance.

Feb. 14, 2014  Solo Works in Two Sets - Friday, Feb. 14, 2014 at Tenri Institute in New York City.

June 4, 2013  CHAMBER OPERAS by Reinaldo Moya, Matthew Welch, and Mark Thome, Tuesday, June 4, 2013.

April 14, 2013   WOMEN COMPOSERS OF ACA  - Sunday, April 14, 2013 at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Feb. 18-19, 2013   ACA AT COMPOSERS NOW! FESTIVAL - February 18 and 19, 2013

ACA 75TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT - June 23, 2012

ACA JUNE FESTIVAL 2011 - June 13, 15, 16, 17, 2011 Symphony Space

ACA JUNE FESTIVAL 2010  - June 15-19, 2010 Symphony Space;  Souvenir Program Booklet Thalia concerts

ACA FESTIVAL 2009  June 17-20, 2009 Symphony Space; Complete listings, photos, bios, programs links

ACA FESTIVAL 2008 page. With complete program listing, composers, and performers. June 4-7 at Thalia, Symphony Space!

ACA Festival 2007 -- program list from the 2007 festival - ACA's 70th ANNIVERSARY

ACA Festival 2006 program listings from the 2006 festival.

ACA Festival 2005 program listings from the 2005 festival.