American Composers Alliance

The American Composers Alliance (ACA) is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the publishing and promoting of American contemporary classical music. Founded in 1937 as an independent licensing association by Aaron Copland, Milton Adolphus (2) and other composers, it is currently the oldest organization of the kind in the USA. In 1944, ACA became affiliated with the newly-established Broadcast Music, Inc. ACA is based in Manhattan, New York City and publishes music through American Composers Edition and Composers Facsimile Edition imprints. The ACA Collection and Archives at the University of Maryland contain scores and historical documents of 500 American composers. In the seventies, ACA established the Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI) label and American Composers Orchestra. Both organizations had since turned into major independent enterprises. In 2006, the CRI catalog became part of New World Records, with most releases available on CD and through digital services, including DRAM (the Database of Recorded American Music). Since 1951, ACA had been awarding the Laurel Leaf Award to various artists and organizations for "distinguished achievements in fostering and encouraging American music." Past recipients of the award include the Juilliard String Quartet, Leonard Slatkin, Speculum Musicae, and Minnesota Composers Forum (now known as American Composers Forum). ACA currently publishes music by more than 200 composers, such as T.J. Anderson, Allan Blank, Barney Childs, Robert Evett, Miriam Gideon, Robert Helps, Otto Luening, Robert McBride, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Daniel Pinkham, Dane Rudhyar, Elliott Schwartz, Halsey Stevens, Karl Weigl, Vally Weigl, Elias Tanenbaum, Joan Tower, Vladimir Ussachevsky and many others.