Alfred Publishing
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Alfred Publishing is a US sheet music publisher specializing in educational music. It is one of the largest US publishers, second only to Hal Leonard.
[edit] Corporate History and Profile
Since its inception in 1922, Alfred Publishing remains dedicated to helping people experience the joy of making music. With hundreds of expert authors and composers backed by a talented staff in seven offices worldwide, Alfred publishes educational, reference, pop, and performance pieces for teachers, students, hobbyists and performers spanning every musical instrument, style, and difficulty level.
Alfred Piantodosi, a composer and musician, founded Alfred Publishing Company in New York in 1922. His modest Tin Pan Alley pop song catalog included such hits as "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" and "Ragtime Cowboy Joe"—songs that still generate revenue for the company today.
In 1928, Sam Manus, a violinist who had provided background music for silent movies, bought the company. The company has been owned by the Manus family ever since, spanning three generations. In 1950, Sam's son Morty, a clarinetist and pianist, and his wife Iris, began working for the company. Inspired by the need for quality music education products, Morty oversaw the development of an instructional series for accordion, followed by books for guitar and piano.
Alfred outgrew its New York headquarters in 1975 and moved its offices to Los Angeles and its warehouse to upstate New York. At this time John O'Reilly joined Alfred as an editor and oversaw its explosion of band and orchestra titles. In the 1980s overall sales doubled to $12 million and sons Steven and Ron joined the company. The 1990s saw expansion into the international market with branch offices in Australia, Asia, the U.K. and Germany, and sales doubled again to over $25 million. On June 1, 2005, Alfred Publishing acquired Warner Bros. Publications from the Warner Music Group, increasing overall sales again to $60 million.
Alfred currently has over 45,000 active print, DVD, software, general MIDI, audio CD and enhanced CD titles in circulation throughout the world. Titles represent a full range of musical tastes and styles, including works by George and Ira Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Henry Mancini, Tony Bennett, Jim Brickman, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Carlos Santana, Madonna, Nickelback, Van Halen, Neil Young, Green Day, Evanescence, and hundreds more. Alfred is the #1 educational publisher in the world. Educational titles include:
Piano: Alfred's Basic Piano Library, The Premier Piano Course, Music for Little Mozarts'
Guitar: Alfred's Basic Guitar Library, The 21st Century Guitar Method
Drums/Percussion: Alfred's Drum Method, Alfred's Drumset Method, Ultimate Realistic Rock
Band Methods: Accent on Achievement, Band Expressions
String/Orchestra: String Explorer, Orchestra Expressions, Suzuki
Theory: Essentials of Music Theory
Plus proven instructional series with titles covering every instrument, including Teach Yourself, Basix, Max, Ultimate Beginner Series, SongXpress, and many, many more.
In addition to its own titles, Alfred distributes works from the National Guitar Workshop, Studio 4 Productions, the Dover Music catalog, Faber Music, and Myklas Music Press.
Alfred Publishing is headquartered in Van Nuys, CA and also has offices in Miami, New York, Cologne, London, Singapore and Sydney.
