Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI) was an American record label dedicated to the recording of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

by American composers. It was founded in

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

by Otto Luening, Douglas Moore, and

Oliver Daniel Oliver Daniel (November 24, 1911 – December 30, 1990) was an American arts administrator, musicologist, and composer. He worked as a music executive for CBS, then took a job at BMI, creating that organization's Concert Music Department in 1954. ...

, and based in New York City. The label released over 600 recordings on LP, cassette, and CD. It went out of business in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

due to financial pressures, and the rights to CRI's recordings were transferred to New World Records in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Selected composers

* Samuel Adler * Dominick Argento *

Aaron Avshalomov Aaron Avshalomov (russian: Ааро́н Авшало́мов; 11 November 1894 – 16 April 1965) was a Russian-born Jewish composer. His work included several ballets, two operas, a violin concerto, four symphonies and a flute concerto. Ea ...

* Jacob Avshalomov *

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his Serialism, serial and electronic music. Biography Babbitt was born in Philadelphia t ...

Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...

Jennifer Margaret Barker Jennifer Margaret Barker (born 6 May 1965 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish-American classical composer and pianist. Her compositional style is highly influenced by the landscape, culture and musical heritage of Scotland. She is Professor of Comp ...

''Nyvaigs'', CRI862, 2000 * Leslie Bassett *

Irwin Bazelon Irwin Bazelon (June 4, 1922 in Evanston, Illinois – August 2, 1995) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Contemporary American composer Irwin Bazelon's music is known for its interesting rhythms and its emphasis on th ...

* William Bergsma * Irving Berlin *

Chester Biscardi Chester Biscardi (b. Kenosha, Wisconsin, Kenosha, Wisconsin, October 19, 1948; nicknamed Chet) is an Italian American composer and educator. He received a B.A. degree in English literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1970); he stu ...

Marc Blitzstein Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Wo ...

* Henry Brant * Anthony Braxton *

Martin Bresnick Martin Bresnick (born 1946) is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music. Education and early career Bresnick grew up in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and A ...

Margaret Brouwer Margaret Brouwer (born February 8, 1940, in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an American composer and composition teacher. She founded the Blue Streak Ensemble chamber music group. Biography Brouwer studied at Oberlin College, graduating in 1962, and re ...

* Earle Brown *

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

* Ronald Caltabiano * Elliott Carter * Chou Wen-chung * Chen Yi *

John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...

George Crumb George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical ...

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

Alvin Curran Alvin Curran (born December 13, 1938) is an American composer, performer, improviser, sound artist, and writer. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and lives and works in Rome, Italy. He is the co-founder, with Frederic Rzewski and Richard ...

* David Diamond * Jacob Druckman *

Judy Dunaway Judy Dunaway (born 1964, in Mississippi) is a conceptual sound artist, avant-garde composer, free improvisor and creator of sound installations who is primarily known for her sound works for latex balloons. Since 1990 she has created over thirty ...

* Donald Erb * Morton Feldman * Scott Fields * Irving Fine *

Vivian Fine Vivian Fine (28 September 1913 – 20 March 2000) was an American composer. Life Vivian Fine was born in Chicago to David and Rose Fine. A piano prodigy, she became at age five the youngest student ever to be awarded a scholarship at the Chic ...

* Ross Lee Finney *

Gene Gutchë Gene Gutchë (born Romeo Maximilian Eugene Ludwig Gutschë; 3 July 1907, Berlin – 15 November 2000, White Bear Lake, Minnesota) was a German composer active primarily in America. Gutchë earned degrees in business and economics but also studied ...

* Daron Hagen * Roy Harris * Lou Harrison * Robert Helps * Lee Hoiby *

Karel Husa Karel Husa (August 7, 1921 – December 14, 2016) was a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. In 1954, he emigrated to t ...

* Andrew Imbrie *

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed f ...

Philip James Philip Frederick Wright James (May 17, 1890 – November 1, 1975) was an American composer, conductor and music educator. Life James was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. At an early age he began piano, violin and theory lessons, and served as ...

* Leroy Jenkins * Tom Johnson * Ben Johnston * Samuel Jones *

Victoria Jordanova Victoria Jordanova is an American composer, harpist, and media artist born in 1952 in former Yugoslavia, active in the field of contemporary classical music, experimental music and media arts. Her work encompasses contemporary classical composition ...

Aaron Jay Kernis Aaron Jay Kernis (born January 15, 1960) is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as Direct ...

Guy Klucevsek Guy Klucevsek (born February 26, 1947) is an American-born accordionist and composer. Klucevsek is one of relatively few accordion players active in new music, jazz and free improvisation. Klucevsek was born in New York City, and raised outside ...

Barbara Kolb Barbara Kolb (born February 10, 1939) is an American composer. Her music uses sound masses and often creates vertical structures through simultaneous rhythmic or melodic units ( motifs or figures). Kolb's musical style can be identified by her use ...

* Ernst Krenek *

Meyer Kupferman Meyer Kupferman (July 3, 1926 – November 26, 2003) was an American composer and clarinetist. Life Meyer Kupferman was born in New York City to Jewish parents.

* Ezra Laderman * David Lang *

Benjamin Lees Benjamin Lees (January 8, 1924 – May 31, 2010) was an American composer of classical music. Early life Lees was born Benjamin George Lisniansky in Harbin, Manchuria, of Russian-Jewish descent. Lees was still an infant when his family emigra ...

John Anthony Lennon John Anthony Lennon (born 1950 in Greensboro, North Carolina) is an American composer of contemporary classical music based in Georgia. Biography Early life and education John Anthony Lennon was born in Greensboro, North Carolina and raised in ...

* Fred Lerdahl * Otto Luening * Donald Martino * William Mayer *

Barton McLean Barton McLean (born 8 April 1938) is an American composer, performer, music reviewer, and writer. Life Barton McLean was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, the son of John and Grace McLean, on April 8, 1938. He graduated from State University of New ...

Priscilla McLean Priscilla McLean (née Taylor; born May 27, 1942) is an American composer, performer, video artist, writer, and music reviewer. Life Priscilla Taylor was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the daughter of business manager Conrad Taylor and school ...

Jacques de Menasce Jacques de Menasce (August 19, 1905 – January 28, 1960) was a composer, pianist, and music criticism, critic of Austrians, Austrian, and later Americans, American, nationality. Jacques de Menasce was born in Bad Ischl, then in the German-speaki ...

* Peter Mennin * Jeffrey Mumford *

Alwin Nikolais Alwin Nikolais (November 25, 1910 – May 8, 1993) was an American choreographer, dancer, composer, musician, teacher. He had created the Nikolais Dance Theatre, and was best known for his self-designed innovative costume, lighting and production d ...

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center ...

Hall Overton Hall Franklin Overton (February 23, 1920 – November 24, 1972) was an American composer, jazz pianist and music teacher. He was born in Bangor, Michigan, the first of the three sons of Stanford and Ruth (Barnes) Overton. He grew up in Grand Rapi ...

* Harry Partch *

P. Q. Phan P. Q. Phan ( vi, Phan Quang Phục), (born 1962 in Da Nang, South Vietnam) is a Vietnamese composer of contemporary classical music living in the United States. He became interested in music while studying architecture in 1978 and taught himself to ...

* Tobias Picker *

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...

* Shulamit Ran * Bernard Rands * Gardner Read * Wallingford Riegger *

Vittorio Rieti Vittorio Rieti (January 28, 1898 – February 19, 1994) was a Jewish- Italian-American composer. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Rieti moved to Milan to study economics. He subsequently studied in Rome under Respighi and Casella, and lived there ...

Neil Rolnick Neil Burton Rolnick (born October 22, 1947) is an American composer and educator living in New York City. Life Rolnick was born in Dallas, Texas, and studied English literature at Harvard University where he received a BA in 1969. He then turned ...

* Ned Rorem * Dane Rudhyar *

Frederic Rzewski Frederic Anthony Rzewski ( ; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. His major compositions, which often incorporate social an ...

* Roger Sessions * Judith Shatin *

Alice Shields Alice Shields (born Alice Ferree Shields, Manhattan, New York, February 18, 1943) is an American classical composer. She is one of the pioneers of electronic music, and is particularly known for her cross-cultural operas. Her work is influenc ...

Hale Smith Hale Smith (June 29, 1925 – November 24, 2009) was an American composer, arranger, and pianist.De Lerma, Dominique-Rene"African Heritage Symphonic Series" Liner note essay. Cedille CDR061. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he learned pian ...

Harvey Sollberger Harvey Sollberger (born May 11, 1938 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa) is an American composer, flautist, flutist, and conducting, conductor specializing in contemporary classical music. Life Sollberger holds an M.A. degree from Columbia ...

* Tan Dun * Virgil Thomson * Francis Thorne * Joan Tower *

Lester Trimble Lester Albert Trimble (August 29, 1923 Bangor, Wisconsin – December 31, 1986 New York City) was an American music critic and composer of contemporary classical music. Encouraged by Schoenberg, who had seen some of his scores, Trimble entered ...

Richard Aaker Trythall Richard Aaker Trythall (July 25, 1939 – December 21, 2022) was an American and Italian composer and pianist of contemporary classical music. Early life and education Trythall was born on July 25, 1939 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the younger b ...

* Chinary Ung * Vladimir Ussachevsky *

Robert Ward Robert Ward may refer to: Politicians *Robert Ward (MP for City of York) * Robert Ward (1754–1831), Irish MP for Wicklow Borough, Killyleagh and Bangor * Robert Ward (American politician) (1952–2021), American lawyer and politician * Robert War ...

* Richard Wernick * Robert Willoughby *

Stefan Wolpe Stefan Wolpe (25 August 1902, Berlin – 4 April 1972, New York City) was a German-Jewish-American composer. He was associated with interdisciplinary modernism, with affiliations ranging from the Bauhaus, Berlin agitprop theater and the kibbutz mo ...

Charles Wuorinen Charles Peter Wuorinen (; June 9, 1938 – March 11, 2020) was an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. He performed his works and other 20th-century music as pianist and conductor. He composed more than ...

* Zhou Long * Evan Ziporyn

References

External links

Composers Recordings Inc. Records, 1946-2007
Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. {{Authority control Record labels established in 1954 Record labels disestablished in 2003 Contemporary classical music 20th-century classical music Classical music record labels Defunct record labels of the United States 1954 establishments in New York (state) 2003 disestablishments in New York (state) Defunct companies based in New York City

Selected composers

See also

References

External links