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ARTISTRY, CREATIVITY, OPPORTUNITY
Who we are. The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) is a national discovery and development pipeline for new orchestral music, focused on bringing the full spectrum of American music to orchestral stages, providing a gateway to the orchestral composition and performance process, and amplifying the expressive power of orchestral music to enable a vibrant future for all Americans. We've made incredible strides over the past 4+ decades, and we are just getting started.
What we do. For composers of all experience levels, we offer an end-to-end composition accelerator to get you from idea to performance in partnership with orchestras nationwide. For orchestral commissioners, we offer a comprehensive suite of resources and relationships to realize your artistic vision. For students and educators, we offer an array of programs and resources designed to nurture creativity through music composition and improvisation. For our country, we bring new works into the world that represent the American experience through the imagination of today’s composers.
Meet ACO
Founded in 1977 by a collective of fearless musicians based in NYC, the American Composers Orchestra expands the definition of American orchestral music to ensure a vibrant and inclusive future. Over more than 40 years committed to artistry, creativity, community, and equity, ACO has blossomed into a national institution that cultivates and develops the careers of living composers, providing a direct pipeline to meaningful partnerships with orchestras across the country.
Composer Advancement
For over 40 years, ACO has discovered and developed the careers of composers whose work expands the definition of American orchestral music. Our national EarShot composer advancement initiatives are the nation’s first ongoing, systemic program for building relationships between composers and orchestras through Readings, CoLABoratory fellowships, consortium commissions, and professional development.
Performances and Events
Join us for electrifying performances featuring world premiere works by artists whose creativity knows no bounds. The American Composers Orchestra performs at Carnegie Hall, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, the Apollo Theater, and beyond.
Educational Programs
For 30 years, ACO has positioned music composition as a gateway to creative thinking, problem solving, and self-expression. Our long-term Sonic Spark residencies nurture the imagination through creative rituals and play, cultivating personal, social, and academic growth. Sonic Spark serves students at all levels of experience, including those who have never played an instrument before, are learning to write music for the first time, or are on track to develop high level careers in the field.
Featured Artists
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Jordyn Davis is a ground-breaking, multi-talented, and award-winning bassist, composer, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. She recently relocated to Brooklyn, NY and was named one of two inaugural Jazz Leader Fellowship recipients by the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Davis has worked on the Tony-winning Broadway musical, New York, New York: A New Musical, and collaborated with Craig Harris and the contemporary dance company Urban Bush Women. Her work spans various musical styles and has been featured on the PBS limited series Music for Social Justice. Davis was just named a 2024-2025 New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow. Read more about the fellowship here.
Madeline Merwin is an American composer and professor specializing in contemporary classical music composition and multimedia music projects. She enjoys working with dance, film, and theater as well as in traditional classical concert settings, and strives to blend classical music with pop/rock groove influences. Madeline is the winner of the 2018-19 American Prize in Composition, awarded for her dance/film/electroacoustic musical work Ceilings Made of Glass. She has received commissions from prominent organizations such as the Nashville Ballet, Wright State University, and X-Contemporary Dance Ensemble, and has completed many other collaborations both domestically and throughout Europe. Madeline was a 2024 EarShot participant. Learn more about Earshot and watch the June 14th livestream here.
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Mendi & Keith Obadike make music, art and literature. Their early works include The Sour Thunder, an Internet opera (BridgeRecords), Crosstalk: American Speech Music (Bridge Records),Black.Net.Art Actions, a suite of new media (internet art) works(published in re:skin on M.I.T Press), Big House/Disclosure, a200-hour public sound installation (Northwestern University), Phonotype, a book & CD of media artworks, and a poetry collection, Armor and Flesh (Lotus Press). They have contributed sounds/music to projects by wide range of artists including loops for neo-soul singer D'Angelo's first album and a score for playwright Anna Deavere Smith at the Lincoln Center Institute. They were invited to develop their first "opera-masquerade" by writer Toni Morrison at her Princeton Atelier. Learn more about their work with ACO here.
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