The “Southeastern Composers’ League" (SCL) is an organization designed to support the composition and performance of contemporary art music by composers living in the southeastern portion of the United States. The geographic area covered by the SCL includes Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The major activity of the League is the sponsorship of an annual “Forum” in the southeastern United States where typically three to five different concerts are presented over a period of several days. Sometimes the Forum includes special guest composers from outside the region.

History

The League traces it existence to the Alabama Composers' League, founded in 1950 by Guerney Kennedy and Paul Newell. It celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2001. The organization remained headquartered at the University of Alabama until 1980, when a new structure and revised constitution was adopted. Guest composers who have been invited to the SCL Forum include Roy Harris

Roy Harris

Roy Ellsworth Harris , was an American composer. He wrote much music on American subjects, becoming best known for his Symphony No...

, William Bergsma

William Bergsma

-Biography:After studying piano with his mother, a former opera singer, and then the viola, Bergsma moved on to study composition; his most significant teachers were Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. Bergsma attended Stanford University for two years before moving on to the Eastman School of...

, Wayne Barlow

Wayne Barlow

Wayne B. Barlow was an American composer of contemporary classical music...

, Ross Lee Finney

Ross Lee Finney

Ross Lee Finney Junior was an American composer born in Wells, Minnesota who taught for many years at the University of Michigan. He studied with Nadia Boulanger, Edward Burlingame Hill, Alban Berg and Roger Sessions...

, Peter Mennin

Peter Mennin

Peter Mennin was an American composer and teacher. He directed the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, then for many years ran the Juilliard School, succeeding William Schuman in this role...

, Bernard Wagenaar

Bernard Wagenaar

Bernard Wagenaar was a Dutch/American composer, conductor and violinist.Wagenaar, not related to the Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar, was born in Arnhem. He studied at Utrecht University before starting his career as a teacher and conductor in 1914. He moved to the USA in 1920, where he became a...

, Norman Dello Joio

Norman Dello Joio

- Life :He was born Nicodemo DeGioio in New York City to Italian immigrants. He began his musical career as organist and choir director at the Star of the Sea Church on City Island in New York at age 14. His father was an organist, pianist, and vocal coach and coached many opera stars from the...

, Lukas Foss

Lukas Foss

Lukas Foss was a German-born American composer, conductor, and pianist.-Music career:He was born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922. His father was the philosopher and scholar Martin Fuchs...

, Vincent Persichetti

Vincent Persichetti

Vincent Ludwig Persichetti was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, Persichetti was a native of Philadelphia...

, Robert Palmer, Burrill Phillips

Burrill Phillips

Burrill Phillips was an American composer, teacher, and pianist.-Biography:Phillips studied at the Denver College of Music with Edwin Stringham and at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers.In 1929 he married Alberta Phillips ; they had a daughter, Ann...

, Wallingford Riegger

Wallingford Riegger

Wallingford Constantine Riegger was a prolific American music composer, well known for orchestral and modern dance music, and film scores...

, Ernst Krenek

Ernst Krenek

Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...

, Henry Cowell

Henry Cowell

Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early 1950s:...

, Milton Babbitt

Milton Babbitt

Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...

, Alvin Etler

Alvin Etler

Alvin Derald Etler was an American composer and oboist.-Career:A student of Paul Hindemith, Etler is noted for his highly rhythmic, harmonically and texturally complex compositional style, taking inspiration from the works of Bartók and Copland as well as the dissonant and accented styles of...

, Iain Hamilton

Iain Hamilton (composer)

Iain Ellis Hamilton was a Scottish composer.He was educated in London where he became an apprentice engineer, and remained in that profession for the next seven years. He undertook the study of music in his spare time...

, Robert Ward, Roque Cordero

Roque Cordero

Roque Cordero was a Panamanian composer.-Life:Born in Panama City, he studied composition under Ernst Krenek and conducting under Dimitri Mitropoulos, Stanley Chapple, and Leon Barzin before becoming director of the Institute of Music and Artistic Director and conductor of the National Symphony of...

, Carlos Chavez

Carlos Chávez

Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by native Mexican cultures. Of his six Symphonies, his Symphony No...

 and Harrison Birtwistle

Harrison Birtwistle

Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...

. The fiftieth anniversary meeting was held at the University of Alabama. The sixtieth anniversary meeting, March 14-15, 2011, marked the first time the Forum has ever been held at North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...

. Other recent instances of the event have been held at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a public university located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The University, often referred to as UTC or simply "Chattanooga" , is one of three universities and two other affiliated institutions in the University of Tennessee System; the others being in...

 , at Louisiana Tech, and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Officers and Membership

The current officers of the organization are Ken Davies, President; Jonathan McNair, Vice President;
Michael Young, Secretary; and Mark Frances, Treasurer. Other prominent members of the organization include Kenneth Jacobs, Roger Vogel, past-president Gregory Carroll, past-president Donna Kelly Eastman, past-president Joe L. Alexander, Rodney Waschka II

Rodney Waschka II

Rodney Waschka II is an American composer known for his algorithmic compositions and his theatrical works.-Biography:Waschka studied at Brooklyn College, at the Institute of Sonology, then newly part of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and earned his doctorate at the University of North Texas...

, Richard Montalto, and Bruce Mahin.