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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.
Our Work
Through ground-breaking performances and nationwide initiatives, ACO continually works to expand the definition of American orchestral music and ensure a vibrant and inclusive future.
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
Mali Irene
Mali Irene is a classically trained vocal artist, composer, and cultural leader whose work moves between opera, experimental improvisation, electronic music, and cross-disciplinary public art. In collaboration with producer Salah Ananse, she composed and performed Rite to Freedom, the soundtrack for the Praise House Project, while her work with Yvette Jackson’s Radio Opera Workshop has included Invisible People, Fear Is Their Alibi, and Left Behind, which premiered at the 66th Venice Biennale. Beyond the stage, she is the founder of museSalon Collaborative, a recipient of the National Black Arts Festival Horizon Award in Music, and the creator of the TEDx talk “What Do You See?,” part of her developing autoethnography on Black liberatory practice in vocal arts.
Based in Portland and raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Kimberly R. Osberg is a composer whose work spans concert music, theatre, film, dance, opera, visual art, and environmental sound. Her projects bring together musicians at every stage of their careers, from student ensembles and emerging artists to performers from major American orchestras, while her community work includes New Wave Opera and several accessible commissioning initiatives. Osberg currently serves as Chatter PDX’s inaugural Composer-in-Residence, developing collaborative projects rooted in place, storytelling, and contemporary performance.
Marie A. Douglas composes with the full vocabulary of her musical life, placing trap rhythms, spirituals, spoken word, electronic samples, and concert traditions within the same frame. Her music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, Albany Symphony’s Dogs of Desire, United States Navy Band, Army Field Band and Soldiers’ Chorus, and ensembles across North America, alongside work in film, R&B, and live touring. Douglas holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition and conducting from the University of Memphis and teaches in the Master of Music Technology program at Southern Utah University.
