Founded in 1977, American Composers Orchestra is the only orchestra in the world dedicated to the creation, performance, preservation and promulgation of music by American composers. Through its concerts at Carnegie Hall, recordings, radio broadcasts, educational programs, New Music Readings and commissions, ACO identifies today's brightest emerging composers, champions prominent established composers as well as those lesser-known, and increases regional, national and international awareness of the infinite variety of American orchestral music, reflecting geographic, stylistic, and temporal diversity. ACO also serves as an incubator of ideas, research and talent, as a catalyst for growth and change among orchestras, and as an advocate for American composers and their music. To date, ACO has performed music by 700 American composers, including more than 300 world premieres and newly commissioned works. Among the honors ACO has received are special awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and from BMI recognizing the orchestra's outstanding contribution to American music. ASCAP has awarded ACO its annual prize for adventurous programming multiple times, singling out ACO as "the orchestra that has done the most for new American music in the United States." ACO received the inaugural METLife Award for Excellence in Audience Engagement. ACO recordings are available on ARGO, CRI, ECM, Point, MusicMasters, Nonesuch, Tzadik, New World Records, iTunes, InstantEncore and more. More information about American Composers Orchestra is available online at www.americancomposers.org.