The Society of Composers, Inc. is a professional society dedicated to the promotion, performance, understanding and dissemination of new and contemporary music. Members include composers both in and outside academia interested in addressing these concerns on a national and regional level. The governing body of the Society is comprised of a National Council made up of co-chairs who represent regional activities, and an Executive Committee made up of the editors and directors of Society publications and projects.

History

SCI was founded in 1965 as the American Society of University Composers or ASUC. The mission of the original organization was to further the cause of contemporary American music by providing opportunities for performance, recording, and publication of members’ works. The name ASUC was later changed to SCI to reflect the demography of our organization, which today consists of almost 1500 members. The affiliations of today’s SCI members range from the independent professional, the student studying for a career in composition, and composer-professors from all over the United States, Canada, and beyond.

Successes

Some of the measure of SCI’s success in promoting contemporary American music can be seen in the more-than 5,000 performances of new works SCI has sponsored at its annual national, regional, and student conferences. The presentation of our conferences–music festivals that showcase the works of SCI composers–is one of the primary missions of SCI, and distinguishes us from other service organizations for composers.

Publications

From its founding, publication was an immediate concern of the Society. Initially, only conference proceedings were published. This was followed by the ASUC Newsletter, the ASUC Recording Series, the SCI Journal of Music Scores, SCION (an online opportunities letter), The SCI Performers CD Series and culminating in the online distribution of many of these projects and iSCI, our new online journal.

Online Presence

SCI’s online presence has expanded in recent years, and this website is the latest development in the growth of our organization. SCI members gain access to career opportunities like competitions, festivals, and conferences via SCION, SCI’s online database of composition opportunities. SCI’s CD series is available on several online music stores and we maintain an active presence on social networking sites like facebook. Today, media files of several types can be uploaded and made available online though member profile pages.