Dr. Robert Young McMahan, Chair, AAA Composers Commissioning Committee; Professor Emeritus, The College of New Jersey, Music Department reports:

Progress has continued at a healthy rate since last month’s report.

The first of the AAA Festival Journal articles (1997) is still in the process of expansion with the plan to do the same with at least one of the nineteen remaining articles (though not necessarily in chronological order) by this time next month.

Several videos or sound tracks have been added to the composition list since the last report, bringing the number of video/mp3 works to 31 of the present total of 62, and thus to the halfway point. Additional recorded performances of at least another five compositions are presently being processed, which will shortly bring the total recorded representations to 36 at: http://www.ameraccord.com/aaacommissions.php

A large and growing international list of prominent accordionists represented thus far in this list consists of Rita Barnea, Joricio Cagel, Carmen Carrozza, Nathan Chapeton, Beverly Roberts Curnow, Joanna Darrow, Ion Dorin, Leonard Feldman, Will Holshouser, Guy Klusevsek, Robert McMahan, Mario Muccitto, Joseph Natoli, Matti Pulkki, William Schimmel, Paul Shigrove, Joan Sommers, and Mary Tokarski. http://www.ameraccord.com/aaacommissions.php

Please let me know at mcmahan@tcnj.edu if you have recordings of any of the remaining unmarked compositions that you would like for us to consider for inclusion.

In addition to these recordings,
1. a video will soon appear of a discussion panel at the City University of New York (CUNY) featuring prominent American composer Samuel Adler discussing his AAA commission Canto XVIII with Beverly Curnow and panel moderator Robert McMahan (who both premiered the solo work respectively in its stradella and free bass formats).
2. Already added at the top of the list is a momentous and historic radio interview from 1961 with Carmen Carrozza (“Live radio broadcast interview with Carmen Carrozza”) regarding his all-important recitals in Chicago and New York in the early 1960s in which he premiered many of the early CCC commissioned works. An absolute “must-hear.”

Finally, PDFs of articles listed in section 2 of the CCC Articles listing (at http://www.ameraccord.com/aaacommissions2.php) have also been added since the last report.

As always, we welcome your input on this project at mcmahan@tcnj.edu.