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Support the Legacy of American Composers

Support the Legacy of American Composers

ACA was founded in 1937, nearly ninety years ago, by a group of composers including Aaron Copland, Marion Bauer, Elliott Carter, and other familiar names, who wanted to create an organization around the new and distinctly American evolutions in classical and concert music. 

Today, we manage and share the fruits of their labor: a curated catalog of 13,000 scores from over 300 composers of past and present America. We're proud to say that almost seven thousand of those scores are available in print and online.

But we need help. As a nonprofit, part of our mission is to make all of these scores available, and for that we need funding. When you make your donation, you support:

  • Scanning and creating new print and digital editions of archival music.
  • Preserving electronics (and tape) from electroacoustic and digital music.
  • Collaborating with performers, teachers, and publishers to create special critical editions, anthologies, collections, and pedagogy.
  • Sharing ACA's music at festivals, conferences, and other in-person events.
  • Expanding ACA's database and search capabilities, library resources, and website,

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How much can you give?
View full details

Other Ways to Donate

ONLINE
- Paypal Giving Fund (ACA receives full donation)
- Paypal (3%+ fee)

LONG-TERM SUPPORT
- Donor Advised Funds
- Gifts of stocks and/or securities (through Vanguard)
- Bequests (Planned gift opportunities)
- Volunteer Opportunities (Skilled musical support, website and clerical work)

CHECK (US bank only):
American Composers Alliance
244 Fifth Avenue, Suite G250
New York, N.Y. 10001

ACA is affiliated with Google Nonprofits, Paypal Giving Fund, Guidestar, New York State Charities Bureau, BMI, ASCAP, HFA, MPA, and The MLC.

Testimonials

“ACA has been a valuable asset in my career. It continues to support my music, provides access to scores for interested musicians, creates unique publications such as my Memory Book (2021), is always responsive to requests, diligently tracks income for royalties and so much more.  They are by far the most significant supporter of modern music that I am aware of.”

T.J. Anderson

ACA Composer

"The American Composers Alliance is an invaluable aid to living composers, maintaining our music in a widely used catalog, providing licensing arrangements, compiling anthologies, notifying us of performance and recording opportunities, and providing continued accessibility for our music through a legacy program."

Elizabeth Vercoe

ACA Composer

“ACA is a haven in a world where publishers can suppress composers’ works, as easily as promote them.” 

Virginia Kay

Estate of Ulysses Kay

“As Performing Arts Curator for Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, my mission is not only to safeguard but also to promote the works of composers such as Ulysses Kay whose papers are at RBML.

The American Composers Alliance has been an enormous help in getting more of Kay's works published. In addition to ACA's mission to promote the music of living composers, they have also allowed a new generation to have access to more of Kay's compositions, when he cannot do that himself, having died in 1995. As a non-profit organization they understand that providing access to these otherwise lost works may not lead to great profits, their mission being much more aligned with that of Columbia, being also non-profit.

However, we are not a publishing house, and so being able to partner with ACA solves the problem of how to bring these scores to life. Otherwise, they sit quietly in their temperature and humidity-controlled storage, in acid-free folders and boxes, but do not live again to be heard in actual performance. The work of the ACA is a vital part of this mission.” 

Jennifer B. Lee

Curator, Performing Arts Collections, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University

“ACA continues to be an indispensable ally to the Karl Weigl Foundation. In addition to its prescribed role in making the music of Karl and Vally Weigl available to musicians worldwide, ACA has, on a routine basis: taken initiatives to upgrade the Weigl catalog, provided suggestions on marketing and outreach, and helped resolve thorny issues relating to copyright and other publishers.

Most importantly, [ACA director] Gina has served as informed and willing counsel on a host of critical issues facing the KWF as custodians of the Weigl music legacy. In summary, ACA is closely aligned with our own goals — and we cannot imagine having a better partner.”

Karl C. Weigl

President of the Karl Weigl Foundation, Estate of composers Karl and Vally Weigl

"ACA keeps one simple goal in mind: to support and promote American composers and their music. Today ACA continues its close affiliation with BMI. Together they strive to fortify the still tenuous position of
the American composer of concert music. With our musical research and development, our serious composers can follow their personal artistic visions."

Francis Thorne

BMI: The Many Worlds of Music, Issue No. 1, 1984