Join Email List
For all press inquiries contact Christina Jensen, 646-536-7864, christina@jensenartists.com
2016-17 Season
5/26/17: This Week’s 8 Best Classical Music Moments – American Composers Orchestra, May 23, The New York Times [article] 5/12/17: ACO Announces Composers Chosen for 2017 Underwood Readings, NewMusicBox [article] April 2017: EarShot’s New Free, Online Composer Archive, Symphony Magazine [article] 3/31/17: Smooth Sailing: Remembering Francis Thorne (1922-2017), NewMusicBox [article] 3/30/17: Review: Steve Reich and two concerts, The Millbrook Independent [review] 3/26/17: Review: An American Composers Orchestra Concert Pays a Bracing Tribute, The New York Times [review] 3/23/17: Steve Reich’s 80th Birthday Season, WNYC [interview] 3/14/17: ‘Flying Fish’ Symphony, Caribbean Life [article] 2/1/17: It’s Time to Settle the Score for Female Composers, The Huffington Post [article] 1/19/17: Generations Ahead: Steve Reich, Strings Magazine [article] 1/17/17: American Composers Orchestra Appoints Edward Yim as President, NewMusicBox [article] 12/14/16: To Help Women in Opera, Several Institutions Arise, The New York Times [article] 11/4/16: Just Why Does New Music Need Champions?, The New York Times [article] 10/26/16: Opera in New York Gets Spooky: Halloween offers a (super)natural opportunity for companies to engage new audiences, The Wall Street Journal [article] 10/25/16: Dracula’s Neighbour: An Interview with Nancy Allen Lundy, Schmopera blog [article] October 2016: Goings On About Town: American Composers Orchestra “Contempo-Scary,” The New Yorker [listing] 9/19/16: American Composers Orchestra President Michael Geller Departing in December, NewMusicBox [article] 9/16/16: Fall Preview: American Composers Orchestra, March 24, 2017 concert, The New York Times [article]
“American Composers Orchestra has brought to the city a repertory of music of our time which leaves all the major American orchestras far behind.”
The New York Times
“If orchestras are more accommodating to living composers today, the ACO can rightfully claim at least some of the credit.”
Steve Smith, Time Out New York
“…the organization exists to upend the status quo with symphonic magnitude.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
“Over the past decade, a new generation of composers and performers has arisen, refusing to submit to genre boundaries or dusty ideological battles, jacking up the cool quotient on New York’s new-music scene. The SONiC Festival… aims to immerse audiences in this new paradigm.”
Time Out New York
“A brilliant and unpretentious showcase for music in the new millennium.”
The Guardian
“The festival started… with the excellent ACO playing premieres of five diverse, fresh and inventive works, dynamically conducted by George Manahan. Young composers today… exude independence and feel entitled to draw from, borrow, use (or abuse) any style of contemporary music that interests them.”
The New York Times
“That’s why the American Composers Orchestra is so indispensible… the ACO fearlessly goes where others do not dare.”
Sequenza 21
“The ACO is this nation’s only orchestra dedicated to exclusive performance of new music, and as such is a treasure…it brings a great assurance and exuberance to its performances.”
Robert Carl, Fanfare
“One rather doubts that any of the New York season’s upcoming orchestra concerts stands a chance of topping the sense of wonder, the excitement of discovery, and the shake-your-bootie, party-down attitude of the ACO’s survey.”
Michael Redmond, The Star Ledger
“If the Philharmonic seems to be coattailing, however gingerly, on the pioneering efforts of the American Composers Orchestra, that invaluable Johnny Appleseed of musical organizations is showing no signs of slacking with its concerts at Carnegie Hall.”
Charles Michener, The New York Observer
“The American Composers Orchestra has already done more to produce works by American composers than any other organization.”
Matthias Kriesberg, The New York Times
“The valuable American Composers Orchestra, which has consistently championed contemporary music with consistent excellence, was in top form on Sunday afternoon for a concert at Carnegie Hall.”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
“… always fascinating, sometimes maddening, frequently exhilarating forays into recent music—or music that was written decades ago but is still fresh.”
Justin Davidson, Newsday
“The American Composers Orchestra continues to offer gratifying proof that contemporary American music is alive, well, and ably performed. The orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies played with uninhibited enthusiasm, as they did all through this entire colorful, rewarding concert.”
Jack Sullivan, American Record Guide
“There is an extensive body of works that combine electronically produced sounds with orchestral instruments… Most traditional orchestras have been timid about exploring this repertory and commissioning such works. Not the plucky American Composers Orchestra.”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
“I don’t know what light I emerged with, other than that of fireworks shooting off in all directions. But as usual with the marvelous ACO concerts, I was never bored.”
Charles Michener, New York Observer
“The afternoon event at Carnegie Hall was once again a careful and considered look at music new to New York audiences and important to this country. Yet none of these four performances seemed a duty—each piece well chosen and well played.”
Bernard Holland, The New York Times
“The American Composers Orchestra is itself a cause as anyone could tell Sunday afternoon in Carnegie Hall. It performed four new works—any two of which would be a big bite for a normal symphony.”
Robert Commanday, The San Francisco Chronicle
“The American Composers Orchestra has few rivals for technical virtuosity.”
Susan Elliot, The New York Post