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Charles Wuorinen papers, 1922-2022

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BOX 117, 240-263 Organization Records, 1952-2019
Wuorinen was an active participant in contemporary music organizations and held leadership positions within these groups. This series documents the activities of the organizations along with Wuorinen’s activities and primarily includes correspondence, meeting minutes, and concert publicity, when relevant.
Organized as two subseries.
BOX 240-255 Music Organizations, 1952-2012
Represented in this subseries are the American Composers Alliance (ACA), American Composers Orchestra (ACO), American Music Center, American Orchestra for Contemporary Music, Composers Forum, Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI), Group for Contemporary Music (GCM), the League of Composers - International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), Meet the Composer, and the San Francisco Symphony.
ACA is a non-profit publisher of American composers founded in 1937; Wuorinen served on the board. ACA’s records include bulletins, Wuorinen’s ACA music library checkout slips, and correspondence.
Composers Francis Thorne and Dennis Russell Davies founded the American Composers Orchestra in 1975 to celebrate ACA’s 40th anniversary; Wuorinen served as president. The ACO supports the work of American composers. The ACO file unit contains extensive correspondence from long-serving president Thorne, financial records, and board agendas.
The American Music Center also supported the creation and performance of American music. Their records include correspondence, newsletters and meeting minutes from the board of directors, on which Wuorinen served.
Wuorinen was president of the American Orchestra for Contemporary Music, also known as the New Orchestra, an ensemble that he co-founded with Arthur Weisberg. The orchestra performed from 1973 to 1978 to promote orchestral music by living composers. The ensemble’s records include the original proposal for the group, tax forms and other financial records, and correspondence.
The Composers Forum records consist of correspondence and the organization’s New Music News monthly mailing promoting new music concerts.
Wuorinen was one of hundreds of American composers whose music was captured by Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI). Otto Luening, Wuorinen’s instructor at Columbia, was one of the label’s co-founders. Wuorinen's first work on a CRI album was "Janissary Music" in 1968. Board and executive committee meeting agendas, press releases, and correspondence concerning recordings of Wuorinen’s music, which constituted more than a dozen albums before CRI stopped recording in 2003, constitute the CRI records.
Wuorinen co-founded the Group for Contemporary Music in 1962 at Columbia University to perform contemporary chamber music. He continued as artistic director after leaving Columbia in 1970; consequently, GCM’s records are the most comprehensive of this series. They include board meeting minutes and agendas, clippings, correspondence, financial papers, recording information, publicity, and programs, which date from 1962 to 2009.
The League of Composers - International Society for Contemporary Music (ICSM) file unit contains publicity for members’ concerts, correspondence, and press releases.
Wuorinen served as a composer in residence through the Meet the Composer Orchestra Residencies Program, first in Louisville from 1984 to 1985 (ending with the orchestra’s strike), then with San Francisco Symphony from 1985 to 1989. He also served on their board of directors in the 1990s. Meet the Composer’s organizational records include correspondence, information about the residencies program, and reports from Wuorinen and other composers about their activities with their respective orchestras. The San Francisco Symphony records provide more detailed information about Wuorinen’s residency. In addition to composing new works for the orchestra, Wuorinen also vetted submissions for the New and Unusual Music Series, which featured performances of works by living composers. Correspondence and program information comprise the resulting documents.
Arranged alphabetically by organization name, record type if applicable, and chronologically therein.
American Composers Alliance
BOX-FOLDER 240/11-15 1952-1957
BOX 241 1958-1970
BOX 242 1971-1988
BOX-FOLDER 243/1-14 1989-2011 and undated
American Composers Orchestra
BOX-FOLDER 243/15-18 1978-1983
BOX-FOLDER 244/1-4 1984-2003
American Music Center
BOX-FOLDER 244/5 Board of Director records, 1959-1985
BOX-FOLDER 244/6-7 Correspondence, 1958-2006
BOX-FOLDER 244/8-9 Newsletters, 1960-1975
BOX-FOLDER 245/1-3 American Orchestra for Contemporary Music, 1973-1978
Composers Forum
BOX-FOLDER 245/4 Correspondence, 1961-1999 and undated
BOX-FOLDER 245/5 New Music News, 1979-1982
Composers Recordings, Inc.
BOX-FOLDER 245/6-17 1954-1969
BOX 246 1970-1982
BOX-FOLDER 247/1-10 1983-1997 and undated
Group for Contemporary Music
BOX-FOLDER 247/11 Board meetings, 1981-1990
BOX-FOLDER 247/12 Clippings, 1962-1986 and undated
BOX-FOLDER 247/13 Contemporary Music Newsletter, 1967-1975
Correspondence
BOX-FOLDER 248/1 Adams, John, 1971
BOX-FOLDER 248/2 Babbitt, Milton, undated
BOX-FOLDER 248/3 Davies, Peter Maxwell, 1971
BOX-FOLDER 248/4 Feldman, Morton, undated
BOX-FOLDER 248/5 Harbison, John, 1972-1973
BOX-FOLDER 247/14-16 Miscellaneous, 1962-1963, 1972-1988
Financial papers
BOX-FOLDER 248/6-7 Bank statements, 1972-1981, 1987-1989
BOX-FOLDER 248/8 Bank statements and expenses, 2013-2014
BOX-FOLDER 248/9 Budgets and contracts, 1963-1988
BOX-FOLDER 248/10-11, 313/2-3 Check registers, 1972-1980, 1985-1986
BOX-FOLDER 248/12 Expenses, 1986-1988
BOX-FOLDER 248/13 Miscellany, 1970-1992
BOX-FOLDER 248/14-15 Taxes, 1971-1989
BOX-FOLDER 249/1 Funding and grant applications, 1963-1988
BOX-FOLDER 249/2 Licensing, 1986
BOX-FOLDER 249/3 National Endowment for the Arts, 1984-1989
BOX-FOLDER 249/4 New York Consortium for New Music, 1983-1988
BOX-FOLDER 249/5 New York State Council on the Arts, 1986-1988
BOX-FOLDER 249/6 Notes by Wuorinen, 1962-1984 and undated
BOX-FOLDER 249/7 Performance information, 1978-1988
BOX-FOLDER 249/8 Photographs, 1986
BOX-FOLDER 249/9 Press releases and other publicity, 1963-1990
BOX-FOLDER 249/10 Program drafts, 1963 and undated
BOX-FOLDER 249/11 Program listing, 1962-2012
BOX-FOLDER 249/12-20 Programs, 1962-1970
BOX 250 Programs, 1971-1987
BOX-FOLDER 251/1-11 Programs, 1988-1991, 1999-2000, 2002-2004, 2009 and undated
Recordings
BOX-FOLDER 251/12 Alan Feinberg, Feldman/Wuorinen, Koch, 1994-1996
BOX-FOLDER 251/13-14 Milton Babbitt: Soli e duettini, 1995-1996
BOX-FOLDER 251/15 String Quartets, volume 2, 1991-1994
BOX-FOLDER 251/16 Wolpe/Schoenberg. Koch, 1993-1996
BOX-FOLDER 251/17 Wuorinen: Chamber Concerto for Cello and 10 Instruments, Ringing Changes. Nonesuch, 1971
BOX-FOLDER 251/18 Wuorinen: Reliquary. Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, 1994-1995
BOX-FOLDER 251/19 Repertoire reports, 1962-1985
BOX-FOLDER 251/20 League of Composers - International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), 1962-2001
Meet the Composer
BOX-FOLDER 251/21 Board Governance Committee, 1995
BOX-FOLDER 252/1-4 Board meeting minutes, 1980s-1997
BOX-FOLDER 252/5 Composer/choreographer project, 1991-1992
BOX-FOLDER 117/2 Composers in Residence Exxon advertisement, 1985
BOX-FOLDER 252/6 Conference summary, 1991
BOX-FOLDER 252/7 Contracts, 1975-1983
BOX-FOLDER 252/8-10 Correspondence, 1975-1989
BOX-FOLDER 253/1-5 Correspondence, 1990-2006 and undated
BOX-FOLDER 253/6 Financial papers, 1995-1998
BOX-FOLDER 253/7 Governance and the Arts, 1998
BOX-FOLDER 253/8 Press, 1974-1998
BOX-FOLDER 254/1 Program information, 1988, 1995, undated
BOX-FOLDER 254/2 Reports, annual and interim, 1976-1979
BOX-FOLDER 254/3 Residency: Louisville, 1984-1985
BOX-FOLDER 254/4-5 Residency: San Francisco, 1986-1987
BOX-FOLDER 254/6 Schedule of Equitable Fees for Commissions, 1981
Report by Wuorinen
San Francisco Symphony
BOX-FOLDER 254/7 Brochures, 1981-1986
BOX-FOLDER 254/8 Commissioning project, 1987-1988 and undated
BOX-FOLDER 254/9 Correspondence, 1981-1993
BOX-FOLDER 254/10-11 Correspondence. Composer submissions, 1985-1986
BOX-FOLDER 255/1-3 Correspondence. Composer submissions, 1987-1989
BOX-FOLDER 255/4 Correspondence. Internal, 1986-1988
BOX-FOLDER 255/5-6 New and Unusual Music Series, 1986-1988
BOX-FOLDER 255/7-8 New and Unusual Music Series, 1988-1990
BOX-FOLDER 255/9 Press and publicity, 1986-1989 and undated
BOX-FOLDER 255/10 Rhapsody in Black performance, 1985
BOX-FOLDER 255/11 Season information, 1985-1986
Includes: Wuorinen's Meet the Composer residency info
BOX-FOLDER 255/12 Season information, 1986-1987
BOX-FOLDER 255/13 Season information, 1987-1988
BOX-FOLDER 255/14 Season information, 1988-1989
BOX 256-263 Non-Music Organizations, 1954-2019
This subseries documents Wuorinen’s memberships in the American Academy of Arts & Letters, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and American Academy in Rome. The awards Wuorinen received from these associations are located in the Subject Files series. He was involved in the academies’ activities after receiving recognition by serving on selection committees and actively submitting potential new members for consideration. The records primarily consist of form letters and correspondence. Wuorinen attended several of the award ceremonies of the American Academy of Arts & Letters; group photographs from these events are in the Photographs series. This subseries also includes records from The Century Association, a private club of artists and scholars in New York City. The Century Association records chiefly consist of form letters and mailings sent to all members. Also present are programs from performances on their concert series that Wuorinen performed on and directed, and correspondence from his nominations of candidates for membership.
Arranged alphabetically by organization name and chronologically therein.
BOX-FOLDER 256/1-29 American Academy in Rome, 1954, 1967, 1974-2011 and undated
American Academy of Arts and Letters
BOX-FOLDER 256/30-37 1960-1967, 1974-1990
BOX 257 1991-2004
BOX-FOLDER 258/1-13 2005-2018
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
BOX-FOLDER 258/14-18 1995-1999
BOX-FOLDER 259/1-13 2000-2014
Century Association
BOX-FOLDER 259/14-19 1972-1982
BOX 260 1983-1988
BOX 261 1989-1999
BOX 262 2000-2009
BOX-FOLDER 263/1-9 2011-2019
BOX 263, 264R-273R, 274, 315R Business and Financial Papers, 1956-2018
This series contains check registers, invoices, and receipts that Wuorinen used to track his income and expenses. There are extensive contracts and royalty statements from both Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and C. F. Peters for recordings, performances, rentals, and purchases of his compositions. There are also federal tax forms along with bank and money market account statements from the 1960s through the 1980s. Some bank statements were too moldy to be salvaged and were disposed.
Materials in this series are restricted until 2068.
Arranged alphabetically by document type or subject and chronologically therein.
BOX-FOLDER 263/10 BOX-FOLDER 315R/2 Annuity. Retirement, 1964-1978
BOX-FOLDER 263/11 BOX-FOLDER 315R/3 Bank Statements. Chemical Bank, 1978-1982
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