The American Music Center was a non-profit organization which aimed to promote the creating, performing, and enjoying new American music. It was founded in 1939 as a membership organization by composers Marion Bauer, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Harrison Kerr, Otto Luening, and Quincy Porter.
For many years the main activity of the Center was the accumulation of a library of American music which accepted score submissions from all composers who joined as members. The Center's library, which eventually contained over 60,000 individual scores, featured published materials as well as unpublished manuscripts, many of which were unavailable elsewhere. (On June 29, 2001, the entire collection was transferred to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.)
In the 1950s, the Center created a program to commission, perform, and record new American orchestral works, which resulted in 18 commissioned orchestral works, 72 performances, 12 recordings, and a Pulitzer Prize for John La Montaine's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. In the early 1960s, the Center initiated its Copying Assistance Program, later renamed the Composer Assistance Program, which gave grants directly to composers to assist in the preparation of performance materials. In subsequent decades, the Center established additional grant programs including one which funded the live performance of music at dance presentations. In 1999, the American Music Center launched the web magazine NewMusicBox, and, in 1007, Counterstream Radio, a 24-hour online station broadcasting music by United States composers. It has grants for composers and ensembles, and offers professional development resources for new music professionals.
On November 8, 2011, the American Music Center merged with Meet The Composer to form New Music USA. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as NewMusicBox and Counterstream Radio.
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