Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center records, 1958-2014

Originally the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, the CMC is the oldest center for Electroacoustic music in the United States. Following several years of experiments with electronic music composition at Columbia, the center was founded by Vladimir Ussachevsky (1911-1990) and Otto Luening (1900-1996) with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1958. Ussachevsky served as director of the center from its inception until 1980, followed by Mario Davidovsky, who served as director from 1980 to 1994. Fred Lerdahl and Brad Garton became co-directors on the center in 1994; the center's name was changed to the Columbia University Computer Music Center under the directorship of Brad Garton in 1996.

When the center was founded in 1958, the CPEMC featured four well-equipped tape studios for electronic composition, as well as the famed RCA Mark II Synthesizer, which is still housed at the CMC. Over the years, the center aquired other state-of-the art equipment of the time, including Buchlas, Serge synthesizers, as well as customized electronic equipment. Computer technology was also in use at the center through the 1970s and 80s, and its ever increasing importance was reflected in the center's name change in the mid-1990s. For anecdotal insight into early computer-use at the center, refer to the recollections of Peter Mauzey, Virgil deCarvalho and Howard Eskin compiled by AcIS.

Milton Babbitt began working at the center shortly after its inception (hence the early Princeton connection). Other composers affiliated with the center during the first 20 years include Jon Appleton, Bülent Arel, Luciano Berio, Wendy Carlos, Charles Dodge, Halim El-Dabh, Daria Semegen, Alice Shields, Pril Smiley, Edgard Varèse and Charles Wuorinen.