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The American Music Center is dedicated to building a national community of artists, organizations, and audiences, creating, performing, and enjoying new American music. Since its founding in 1939 by composers Marion Bauer, Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson, Harrison Kerr, Otto Luening, and Quincy Porter, AMC has been a leader in providing field-wide advocacy, support, and connection. AMC advocates for the community through its media programming, supports the community by making grants to composers and ensembles each year, and by offering professional development programs for artists; and AMC connects the community with an array of information services designed to facilitate performances, including a vast, searchable database of 45,000 works by American composers; publications compiling opportunities in new music and other information useful to industry professionals; and benefits and services for nearly 2,500 members in all fifty states and around the world.
CURRENT PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
ADVOCACY: BRINGING NEW MUSIC TO THE PUBLIC
NewMusicBox: AMC’s Award-Winning Web Magazine
NewMusicBox has consistently delivered high-quality coverage of the field since 1999 and currently receives more than 65,000 unique visitors each month. Readers gain 24-hour access to a nationwide perspective on what's happening in the field, including profiles, analysis, practical advice, news, and field reports. Visitors can participate in ongoing discussions about new music and instantly access streaming audio and video content.
Counterstream Radio: AMC’s Online Radio Station
In March 2007, AMC inaugurated Counterstream Radio, an online radio station, broadcasting a continuous stream of new American music, emphasizing the work of living composers and performers in a wide variety of genres who have limited access to commercial broadcast or other mass distribution vehicles. Counterstream’s programming features a combination of genre-specific radio hours (including jazz, new releases, and “On the Edge”), special content such as interviews, and a frequently-updated general mix of adventurous music.
SUPPORT: HELPING ARTISTS AND ORGANIZATIONS THRIVE
Grantmaking Programs
The Composer Assistance Program provides direct financial support to help composers meet costs associated with premiere performances of their work. The Live Music for Dance Program, helps choreographers and dance companies meet the costs of hiring musicians for live accompaniment of dance performances and/or commissioning composers to create new works for dance.
Professional Development Program: Workshops for New Music Professionals
AMC’s Professional Development Program is an essential resource for those pursuing careers in new music. The flagship Tuning Up Your Career workshop series covers essential business and promotion issues and vital information about production of scores and parts. Nuts & Bolts workshops focus on the practical side of composing by fostering dialogue between composers and the performers, producers, conductors, and artistic administrators who program and perform new music.
CONNECTION: AMC’S NEW MUSIC INFORMATION SERVICES
Explore American Music: AMC’s Online Information Center
In a major redesign of AMC’s home website in 2007, the AMC Online Library (previously NewMusicJukebox) became a principal component of Explore American Music, an online portal to new American music that directs visitors to detailed information on artists, repertoire, and performances. Explore American Music, accessible at AMC.net, includes links to AMC’s Composer Directory, Music for Young Audiences, the AMC 20th Century Scores Collection, housed at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Calendar of Events, Venues Database, as well as the Online Library. The Online Library provides on-demand access to digital scores and sound files, program notes, and biographical information on composers via a powerful, searchable database. The Online Library now includes searchable data on 45,000 works by 5,500 composers.
All of these services help to promote the work of and improve the ecology for AMC’s nearly 2,500 current members, who hail from all 50 states and 25 countries, and include composers, performers, commissioners, academic and performance institutions, industry professionals, and advocates.
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Online Now!
