Contemporary Music Project for Creativity in Music Education

The Contemporary Music Project (CMP) spanned a fourteen-year period from 1959 to 1973. The Young Composers Project (YCP), the result of a proposal made by Norman Dello Joio in 1957, marked its genesis. Initiated in 1959, the project was funded by the Ford Foundation and administered by the National Music Council. Mr. Dello Joio served as director and chairman of the Project Policy Committee.

In 1962 the YCP was elevated in status from a pilot program to one of the ten major programs of the Ford Foundation. In 1964, the YCP became the Contemporary Music Project for Creativity in Music Education (CMP). Under this new title, the project was expanded to include seminars and workshops at major universities focusing on the teaching of comprehensive musicianship, and pilot projects focused on the musical creativity of young students. Music Educators National Conference (MENC) (now the National Association for Music Education (NAfME)) supplemented a continuing grant from the Ford Foundation and administered such Project activities as the CMP Library and the founding of Institutes for Creativity in Music Education. The Project also awarded grants to university teachers to develop comprehensive musicianship curricula.

In 1968 the Ford Foundation gave MENC a grant to administer the CMP for an additional five years. From 1968-1973 the CMP consisted of three programs: Professionals-in-Residence to Communities (formerly YCP), the Teaching of Comprehensive Musicianship, and Complementary Activities. The dual function of sponsoring musicians and the teaching of musicianship was continued by CMP until its termination in 1973.

The CMP Archives consists of approximately twenty-five linear feet of documents; scores donated by the young composers, taped performances of CMP compositions, video tapes of the Eastman workshops; the recording "Comprehensive Musicianship Training" and the film "What is Music"; microfilm used by University Microfilms to produce the CMP Library, and the CMP Library itself. The Archives have been housed in the NAfME Historical Center at the University of Maryland since the conclusion of the project in June 1973.