American Music Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The American Music Center (AMC), founded in 1939 by a consortium led by the American composer Aaron Copland, is a national information, service, and support center for new U.S. music.
Originally dominated by composers, the organization changed its bylaws to allow for stronger representation from performers, publishers, and others involved in the creation, dissemination and advocacy of American music in all of its forms.
Amongst its support services was a library, a collection that was turned over to the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Research Library (call numbers start with "AMC"). In May 1999, its member newsletter was dropped to create an on-line magazine, NewMusicBox, edited by Frank Oteri, which won the first ASCAP Deems Taylor Internet Award. An idea of AMC Executive Director Richard Kessler and composer and AMC board member Libby Larsen, in 2003 the American Music Center started an on-line collection, NewMusicJukeBox, which makes available scores and recordings contributed by the copyright holders. Since the 1980's, the AMC has distributed an "Opportunity Update" with listings of competitions, calls for scores, calls for conference papers and presentations, and the like.
With NewMusicBox, NewMusicJukeBox, and another unrelated publication, New Music Connoisseur, the term "new music" came to be generally accepted as an all-encompassing term that included Contemporary classical music, experimental music, electronic music, fusion, jazz, as well as music written for dance, stage, film and the Internet. The AMC gives out yearly "letters of distinction" to composers, performers, critics, ensembles, and organizations which have supported or represented American music in all of these forms.
AMC is a founding member of IAMIC, an international coalition of music centers from around the world.
