Interestingly, the two composers who accepted and fulfilled the largest number of AAA commissioned works to date–four each–are Paul Creston and his once private composition student, the eminent New York accordionist/composer William Schimmel.

Regarding Creston, I have at this point in my efforts to discuss the history and analysis of his invaluable contributions to the modern contemporary repertoire for our instrument via the AAA examined his first three such commisions, the solo Prelude and Dance, in the 1998 issue of the AAA Festival Journal, but which has already been available for some time in its new, expanded html version in the AAA website; Concerto for accordion and orchestra or band, originally in the 1999 issue of the AAA Festival Journal, but coming very soon in its expanded html version on the AAA website; Fantasy, for accordion and orchestra, or accordion solo, in the 2012 AAA Festival Journal, similarly to be expanded soon; and, for this latest expanded article, the original shorter form of which appeared in the 2017 issue of the AAA Festival Journal, the three-movement solo Embryo Suite. http://www.ameraccord.com/aaacommissions20.php

Embryo Suite was one of several solos to be written at the intermediate level of difficulty that Bennett assigned in the mid 1960s to previously AAA-commissioned composers of note in addition to Creston, namely David Diamond, William Grant Still, and Carlos Surinach, plus a first-time commissionee, José Serebrier, all discussed in the 2015 article (soon to be available in html form). The purpose of the project was to introduce twentieth century, idiomatically accordionistic concert music to younger, less technically advanced students. They also often served as test pieces in the intermediate divisions of the burgeoning AAA competitions of the 1960s and later.