Outside of the Mendel Music Library Princeton University

Mark your calendars! The Atlantic Chapter fall meeting will take place at Princeton University, October 19-20, 2012. Our host is Darwin Scott, and we will meet in the Woolworth Music Building, also home to the Mendel Music Library.

Possible tours before our conference include a docent-led tour of the Princeton University Art Museum, and a tour of the Frank Gehry-designed Lewis Science Library. An organ concert at the University Chapel is also in the works.  Arrangements are being made for us to stay at the nearby Nassau Inn, with a discounted rate of $140/night for a double room.

More details coming soon — we hope you can join us!

L'Amant anonime by Chevalier Joseph Bologne de Saint-Georges

Linda Wright Moore, senior communications officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, moderated an illustrious panel of musicians and music scholars including: Joseph Conyers, string bassist with the Philadelphia Orchestra; Clipper Erickson, Nathaniel Dett scholar; Gary Galván, consultant-scholar from the Fleisher Collection; Jay Fluellen, musician/composer St. Thomas Episcopal Church; and André Raphael, conductor and music director of the Wheeling West Virginia Symphony.  Panelists spoke of their backgrounds and what led them to their interests in black composers of classical music.  The panelists all expressed the importance of music in the home, and the opportunities provided by music programs in schools at all levels from primary through university.  The speakers all expressed concern about current funding cuts to education forcing the scaling back or cancelling of music programs that are vital to students and their communities.  Dr. Norment, chair of African American Studies at Temple University spoke about ensuring that the works of black composers are included in university music curriculums and discussed in undergraduate classes as well as studied and researched at the graduate level.  The importance of training teachers to be aware of this vast and neglected repertoire, and how to include music of black classical composers in their teaching was discussed.  Another idea posed was that teaching music composition at a young age provides students with a deep understanding of the value of music as expression.   Radio stations and internet radio stations need to include more repertoire of black classical composers.  All participants felt the power of music in building a community of experience.  Music brings people together.

Music librarians Anne Harlow of Temple University and Steven Landstreet of the Free Library of Philadelphia were introduced as guides to finding scores and recordings of classical music by black composers at the Free Library and at Temple University Libraries.

How about you?  How much do you know about Black Composers of classical music? Take this quiz to find out!

Want to find out more?  See Temple University Libraries’ research guide on Black Composers of Classical music.

—Anne Harlow, Temple University Libraries

—-Jane Cross, Music Librarian, U.S. Marine Band, Washington, D.C.

After beginning and finishing library school, I interned in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The single-most important and exciting contribution I made there was identifying a trove (read: 200+ stash) of transcriptions made by Charles Seeger, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Sidney Robertson Cowell for a never-published anthology of American folk-tunes. Shortly after that exhilarating discovery I finished my internship and began working at Haverford College.

I’ve been at Haverford as music librarian since April of 2010, and I’ve loved every minute of it! I’ve learned so much, and I’m continually realizing how much I don’t know. But, that ever-present opportunity for learning is precisely why I became a librarian in the first place…”

——Adam Crandell, Music & Languages Librarian, Haverford College

Lisa Woznicki (Towson State University) presented her research on the songs of Alma Schindler Mahler that grew out of work with the Mahler-Werfel Papers housed at the University of Pennsylvania. Only a handful of Alma Mahler’s songs survive, and these were presented in the context of the biographical details of Alma’s life.

Library programming from a different perspective was our next presentation, by Laura Krulikowski (Indiana University Pennsylvania). Drawing on her experience with programming live concerts at the Orendorff Music Library, she provided a wealth of practical tips on organizing a live music series.  Stephen Marvin, Librarian at West Chester University spoke about his activist approach to copyright and fair use.

Stephen Marvin and Paul Emmons

Two guest speakers from the faculty of West Chester University presented on Saturday morning.  Julian Onderdonk led us through close readings of several Vaughan Williams settings in The English Hymnal,  with his Folksong, English Hymnody, and Bach’s Chorales: Ralph Vaughan Williams and ‘the Greatest of All Musicians, illustrating how Vaughan Williams used similar methods that Bach used, reworking chorales with a popular orientation. Our last presentation was on West Chester’s favorite son, Samuel Barber. Patricia Powell, assisted by Tatyana Oksyuk, Kimberly Reighley, and Emily Bullock,  gave a lecture recital on the collaborative works of Samuel Barber,  which included performances of several of Barber’s works.

We ended with our business meeting, with reports from committees, a spirited discussion of how we can reach out to new members, and a hearty round of applause to Paul Emmons, our host.

Darwin Scott announced plans for our next chapter meeting, which will be held at Princeton University, October 19-20, 2012.

James Alberts has worked in libraries since 1995, primarily in technical services positions. He started as a cataloging technician at Brandeis and Harvard Universities while doing graduate work in music history. In 2001 he received the MLS from the University of Maryland, where he was graduate assistant in music cataloging under Alice LaSota. His first professional position was Catalog Librarian at the Curtis Institute from 2001 to 2003. In 2003 he became Assistant Music Librarian at Cornell University, where he supervised the music technical services staff, selected sound and video recordings, cataloged music in all formats, and provided reference and instruction services. In 2010, he moved to the Recorded Sound Section of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress, where he is a cataloger. He was a member of the MARC Formats Subcommittee of MLA for eight years, serving as chair from 2006 to 2010, and is currently a member of the Descriptive Cataloging Subcommittee.

Trained as a double bassist, Jim now plays and teaches fiddle, mandolin, and mountain dulcimer, and studies Appalachian and Irish traditional music.

Michael Fitzgerald is Electronic Services Librarian at the University of the District of Columbia, where he also works closely with the Felix E. Grant Jazz Archive. He holds two degrees in jazz studies from Rutgers University and an MSLS from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Fitzgerald is co-author of the award-winning biography Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce (Berkeley Hills, 2002) and a contributor to the book Perry Robinson: The Traveler (iUniverse, 2002). He serves as editor of the open access journal Current Research in Jazz and as jazz research director for the website jazzdiscography.com. The Map of Jazz Musicians project, of which he is co-director, was awarded a 2010 Digital Humanities Start-up Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Fitzgerald has published in ARSC Journal, Coda, Jazz Educators Journal, Jazz Research News, Notes, and Signal To Noise, and has written liner notes for CDs on the Verve, Mosaic, Prescription, and Uptown labels. Prior to entering the library profession he taught instrumental music in the New Jersey public schools for ten years and has recently been conductor of the Music Library Association Big Band for its performances at the annual conferences.

Outside the U.S. Marine Band Library

The Atlantic Chapter of the Music Library Association had its fall meeting on October 15-16 in Washington D.C., hosted by Nobue Matsuoka-Motley, Music Librarian at American University. After a morning pre-conference tour of the U.S. Marine Band Music Library, led by Master Sargeant Jane Cross, we assembled at the Katzen Arts Center at American University.

The afternoon session began with Jim Cassaro (University of Pittsburgh) presenting “Haydn in Latrobe : The Musical Legacy of Boniface Wimmer (1809-1887).” Wimmer was a Benedictine Monk from Munich who settled in Latrobe, Pennsylvania in 1846.  Along with 18 candidates for the monastery, he founded the St. Vincent Archabbey, the first Benedictine Community in the United States.  The Boniface Wimmer Music Collection at the Latimer Family Library at St. Vincent College consists of approximately 3500 items, 75% of which were gathered by Wimmer. Among the many treasures in the collection are manuscript parts by Joseph Matthias Kracher , an autograph manuscript of Michael Haydn, and copyist manuscripts of works by Micheal Haydn, Joseph Haydn, and Mozart, as well as several early printed music editions.

Steven Gerber (George Mason University) then presented  “Bigamy Scandal Sinks Sacred Music Group! A case-study of the rise and fall of the Church Music Association, 1869-1874,” the story of a semi-professional 19^th century American choral group with increasingly successful seasons (including the American premiere of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis) whose rising success was demolished when it was discovered that the “star” conductor of the group was a bigamist. Framed as a “case-study of a socioeconomic experiment in musical infrastructure,” this story of George Templeton Strong’s Church Music Association illustrates the precarious nature of producing large ensemble concerts in nineteenth century America.

Lisa Shiota and Nobue Motsuoka-Motley

We adjourned for a coffee break and musical interlude, with performances by chapter members Dick Griscom, Lisa Shiota, and our meeting host, Nobue Matsuoka.

Next we heard a report on “The Music Genre/Form Project at the Library of Congress,” by Geraldine Ostrove (Library of Congress) which was an enlightening account (particularly for this non-cataloger) on what this project means and the progress thus far. Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) describe what something is about, whereas Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms describe what something is. The benefits of implementing the new genre/form terms are numerous: to provide more discriminating searches, to make it easier to find out how controlled terms are related to each other, to improve the controlled vocabulary that subject searching is based on, and to generally facilitate the ability of searchers to find what they are looking for. The basic structure of the Library of Congress Genre/Form Thesaurus (LCGFT) was discussed, as well as many of the details and intricacies that the LC Music Genre/Form Project Group is working out. For more on this, see the Library of Congress Genre/Form Web site.

Our last speaker of the afternoon, Winston Barham (University of Virginia) described the recording archives and workflow at the University of Virginia Music Library, in “Preserving Virginia’s Recorded Concerts.” The UVA Music Library preserves, digitizes, and delivers both historical recordings and current Music Department concerts.  One of the oldest examples in the collection is the premiere of Randall Thompson’s Testament of Freedom, performed by the UVA Glee Club in 1943, which was commissioned to commemorate the 200^th birthday of Thomas Jefferson.  Other interesting recordings continue to turn up from different corners of the campus, including a fifty year old recording of a lecture that Milton Babbitt had given on campus.

On Saturday morning, we met at American University Bender Library’s “Mud Box,” and after a continental breakfast, enjoyed two presentations. The first was by American University Professor Marc Medwin, whose “Devils and Details: The Secret History of Fusion,” examined the various musical implications of what is meant by “fusion,” starting with Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, the 1969 album that is traditionally recognized as the “first” jazz-rock fusion album.  Professor Medwin then took us on a ride through years prior Bitches Brew–from the Beatles, to The Byrds, Mellow Yellow, and Larry Coryell–when “both jazz and rock musicians engaged in an intercontinental, experimental and increasingly complex dialogue.”

Our final presenter was Marcia Farabee, Principal Librarian of the National Symphony Orchestra, who spoke to us on “Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association: Fish, Woven Blouses, AND Performance Librarians!” She provided a brief history of MOLA, and described how she found her way into music ensemble librarianship, plus the skill set that is required to do this type of work. We looked at four different National Symphony concert programs, as she walked us through the highlights and details of preparing for each concert. From researching keys and cuts for singers to obtaining permissions for parts for a concert of film music, to working with conductors, orchestra musicians, soloists, and other ensemble librarians throughout the country, we were provided with a fascinating snapshot of a day in the life of an orchestral music librarian.

Marcia Farabee, Principal Librarian, National Symphony Orchestra

—Linda Dempf

Prior to the start of our formal chapter meeting at American University, a group of us toured the United States Marine Band facilities and Library, led by Chief Librarian Master Sergeant Jane Cross. It was a fascinating look at the country’s oldest military band, with its impressive spaces for rehearsal, recording, and administration. We had an extensive tour of the Marine Band Library, which includes the performance collection of over 50,000 music titles for band, orchestra, chamber groups, dance band, and piano. A music reference collection, plus books, periodicals, sound recordings and video support the research needs of band members and visitors. The library also houses the Military Music Collection, which documents the history of the band with archives and artifacts, including those of its most famous leader, John Philip Sousa. It was a fascinating look at the work involved in providing access to music for hundreds of concerts each year –for state functions at the White House, ceremonial concerts, the band’s Washington D.C. area concert series, music for social events, plus the Marine Band’s yearly national tour.

The Atlantic Chapter of the Music Library Association (ATMLA) held an Education Outreach Program (EOP) preconference prior to ATMLA’s September 25, 2009, meeting at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA. The EOP, a joint program of the Music Library Association (MLA) and the Music OCLC Users Group, provides training to non-music librarians on the basics of music librarianship. Participants at the Gettysburg event, “Music in Libraries: Just the Basics,” learned about Sound Recording Cataloging, led by Robert Lipartitio (Rowan University) or Music Reference, led by Joe Clark (University of Baltimore). The workshops were offered simultaneously (2 1/2 hours each with a break).

The cost of attending was $12, the same as an ATMLA meeting. This low fee was possible, in part, due to a grant provided by national MLA. For $12, the workshop participant had a continental breakfast, a workshop, lunch (with music performed by Gettysburg College students) and could attend the ATMLA meeting that followed.

There were 42 people in attendance: 23 from academic libraries, 17 from public libraries, 1 from a pre-1st to 12th grade school library and 1 from the Library of Congress. The participants came from Pennsylvania (23), Maryland (12), Washington, DC (3), Virginia (2) and New York (2).

Comments after the meeting included:
“Very thorough coverage of a wide range of resources” … “clear and organized”… “presenter was extremely knowledgeable and personable” … “helped clarify many questions and ambiguities” … “price was incredibly reasonable.”

—David M. King is a music librarian at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and co-coordinator of MLA’s Education Outreach Program.

Posted by Linda Dempf at 9:37 AM

November 9, 2009

AU Music Library Doubles Sound Collection

At the end of 2008, American University Library received a generous donation of approximately 4,000 CDs from Bil Shaw in memory of Robert M. Sasmor. Sasmor was an opera enthusiast and collector of sound recordings of exceptional classical music performances.

The Sasmor Collection at American University, as it is now to be known, covers a time period from the Medieval to the 20th Century and consists mainly of releases by well-respected labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Philips, London, Sony Classical, and RCA. This collection’s greatest strengths are opera and vocal recordings, most notably Maria Callas’ twenty four complete opera productions recorded with EMI as well as additional live performances and recitals.

The instrumental part of this collection includes the GREAT PIANISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY series featuring over 180 artists as well as historical recording sets of violinists Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern and Arthur Grumiaux, and major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra. Many of these recordings are out-of-print and/or imported items. The collection is the largest and the most comprehensive sound recording donation that American University Library has ever received. By the time the entire Sasmor collection is available to the public by January 2010; the music library’s CD collection will grow to 10,000.

—Nobue Matsuoka-Motley is Music/Performing Arts Librarian at American University

Posted by Linda Dempf at 3:07 PM

November 6, 2009

Fall Meeting in Gettysburg

The Atlantic Chapter gathered for its annual Fall Meeting on September 25-26, hosted and organized by Tim Sestrick, Music and Media Librarian at Gettysburg College. A pre-conference workshop, “Music in Libraries: Just the Basics” was held, and 42 participants attended sessions in either Music Reference led by Joe Clark, or Sound Recordings Cataloging, led by Bob Lipartito. The workshop was presented under the auspices of MLA’s Educational Outreach Program.

Several attendees from the pre-conference workshop joined Atlantic Chapter Members for the afternoon sessions.

We were welcomed by Robin Wagner, Director of Gettysburg College Musselman Library, and Kay Hoke, Director of Gettysburg’s Sunderman Conservatory. The Friday afternoon sessions began with Lisa Woznicki (Towson University) presenting “Tea for Two: Providing Offsite Research Assistance in an Informal Setting to Performing Arts Students and Faculty,” her pilot project of moving reference service into the cafe of Towson’s Center for the Arts building for weekly walk-up research sessions. Turning to collection development, two presentations followed, with Linda Dempf (The College of New Jersey) discussing current issues facing libraries in “New Methods of Delivery for Library Media,” and Carl Rahkonen (Indiana University Pennsylvania) giving a lively talk on “Music Collection Development: Past, Present, and Future.” The final three topics of the afternoon centered on next generation catalogs. Erin Mayhood (University of Virginia) discussed VIRGObeta in “A Next-Generation Catalog for Music: The Music Lens,” and talked about user-centered design techniques used to build the catalog, issues with mapping music MARC records, and user feedback. Steve Henry (University of Maryland) shared his recent experiences in “Implementing Worldcat Local,” and Carlos Pena (University of Pittsburgh) was the final presenter of the afternoon, discussing “Implementing AquaBrowser” for music reference.

Friday evening, ATMLA members were treated to A Reading for Lincoln, a re-creation of a period reading, featuring Richard Sautter as James Murdoch, with period music by Tin Kettle. After a break, Tin Kettle returned with a wonderful set of Irish music. The brave (and energetic!) among us finished the day with a “Ghosts of Gettysburg” walking tour.

ATMLA members were called to the meeting on Saturday morning with fife and drum music of the Civil War era, played by Andrew Deen (Gettysburg College) and Dave Swisher (Gettysburg College). Andrew then discussed his recent research in “An Introduction to Soundtrack in Civil War Film,” with assistance from Dave Swisher, as they demonstrated several more fife and drum tunes. This was followed by Alexander Kahn (Gettysburg College), whose “Double Lives: Exile Composers in Los Angeles,” discussed the community of European exiles who fled to Los Angeles during the Third Reich and found work composing for the film industry and teaching at local universities and colleges. The final presenter, Marta Robertson (Gettysburg College), led us through an exploration of the minuet as a Bernstein Masterwork in “Learning Teaching Learning: The Artful Musicologist.” We learned about constructing meaning together in a learning-centered environment, and approaching music through different disciplinary perspectives– from math to politics and gender studies—as we analyzed the minuet and its notation.

Next year’s fall chapter meeting will be in Washington D.C., hosted by Nobue Motsuoka at American University. Hope to see you there!

Posted by Linda Dempf at 4:05 PM

March 23, 2008

University of Pennsylvania receives Francis Johnson Collection

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries has acquired a collection of early-nineteenth-century editions of music by Philadelphia bandleader and composer Francis Johnson (1792-1844). Although a free African American, Johnson lived in an age when racial segregation and prejudice were commonplace. Despite these obstacles, he was able to achieve extraordinary renown and respect among the elite of Philadelphia through performances of his band at balls, parades, and promenade concerts. Following a series of concert tours late in his life, Johnson’s fame eventually extended through the Midwest and across the Atlantic to London. His music survives today in piano arrangements published during his lifetime. The collection acquired by the Penn Libraries was assembled by the late Kurt Stein, a Philadelphia-area collector of Americana. For more information, contact Dick Griscom at griscom@upenn.edu.

Posted by John Anderies at 1:41 PM

March 3, 2008

Welcome new member, Ana Dubnjakovic

Ana Dubnjakovic is a Performing Arts and Foreign Languages Librarian at Virginia Tech. Her duties include collection development, reference and instruction for her assigned departments. Prior to Virginia Tech, Ana worked for University of Louisville as a Music Librarian, at Herzing College in New Orleans as a Librarian, and as a Chamber Music Librarian at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Ana earned her MLIS from Louisiana State University and holds an MM in Music Composition from University of New Orleans. In 2000 she was awarded the first prize by the Southeastern League of Composers for her woodwind quintet. Welcome, Ana!

Posted by John Anderies at 10:19 AM

February 25, 2008

Please welcome new member, Amanda Pilmer

Amanda Pilmer is the Fine Arts Librarian for Fairfax County Public Schools in Northern Virginia. Her duties include maintaining a collection of music and arts holdings for more than 500 Fine Arts teachers, as well as working to bring the library into the 21st century. Amanda has a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Brigham Young University, where she worked for two years in the Music and Dance Library. She is now pursuing an MLIS in Academic Libraries from the University of South Carolina. Amanda currently performs with the Mormon Choir of Washington, D.C., and in various community theater projects. Formally a senior member of Flava Dance Company in Salt Lake City, UT, she also choreographs musicals and show choirs within the school district.

Posted by John Anderies at 2:11 PM

December 3, 2007

ATMLA welcomes new member, Brandon Masterman

Brandon Masterman recently graduated from Youngstown State University with a BM in Saxophone Performance and is currently pursuing his MLIS in Academic Librarianship from the University of Pittsburgh, where he is an intern at the Theodore M. Finney Music Library, under the mentorship of Jim Cassaro. He plans on pursuing his second masters in Musicology beginning in the Fall of 2008. Welcome, Brandon!

Posted by John Anderies at 11:19 AM

November 21, 2006

Welcome new member Nobue Matsuoka-Motley

Nobue Matsuoka-Motley, a native of Japan, recently moved from New Orleans, LA to become the Music/Performing Arts Librarian at American University in Washington, DC. She earned her MLIS from Louisiana State University in December 2006. She has worked for Google Inc. as a Japanese Quality Rater, a Reference/Technical Services Librarian at Notre Dame Seminary and a Public Services Assistant/ILL specialist at Loyola University in New Orleans.

She was awarded a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance by Loyola University in New Orleans and a Master of Music by Southern Methodist University. As an active orchestral percussionist, her professional carrier includes performances with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Orleans Opera, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan. She was a semi-finalist for the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony and a finalist for the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2003, the Gambit Weekly of New Orleans, honored her performance “Sticks and Strings II” with the Tribute to the Classical Arts Award for Best Chamber Performance. Welcome, Nobue!

Posted by John Anderies at 2:10 PM

September 14, 2006

The Harold S. Orendorff Music Library at IUP by Carl Rahkonen

In January 2006 the Music Library at Indiana University of Pennsylvania moved into a new facility as part of an $8.9 million renovation and expansion of Cogswell Hall, the music building. The new 6,400 square foot music library, a branch of the IUP Libraries, is located on the ground floor just inside the main entrance to Cogswell Hall. It features new automatic compact shelving housing the score collection, a large commons area with comfortable furniture, and a seminar room for small class instruction and meetings. The entire library is wireless for personal laptop use. There are new multi-media carrels with state of the art (in 2006) public computers and audio equipment for most formats.

A public rededication and plaque unveiling for the new music library was held on April 29, 2006. The library was named for Dr. Harold S. Orendorff, former Chair of the Music Department and first Dean of the College of Fine Arts at IUP. Dr. Orendorff was honored by having the auditorium of Cogswell Hall named after him, which is now part of the space that the new music library occupies. The rededication service included brief remarks by the Music Librarian, Music Department Chair, the Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts, and the Dean of Libraries. Richard Orendorff, Harold’s son and former Magistrate of Indiana County, spoke on behalf of the Orendorff family. Members of the IUP music faculty performed several original compositions by Harold Orendorff.

–Carl Rahkonen is Music Librarian at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Photo above: Richard Orendorff speaks at the rededication and plaque unveiling – photo by Keith Boyer.

Posted by John Anderies at 11:17 AM

February 4, 2006

Ormandy and Television exhibit at University of Pennsylvania

The Otto E. Albrecht Music Library at the University of Pennsylvania recently opened an exhibit titled “Coming to the Small Screen: Ormandy and Television,” which displays for the first time correspondence and photographs related to Eugene Ormandy’s television appearances and his efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to gain more exposure on the “small screen.” If your travels bring you to Philadelphia, Richard Griscom, head of the Music Library, encourages you to stop by. Learn how the Philadelphia Orchestra made television history in 1948. See rare photos documenting the 1955 Tastykake Christmas Hour. Find out why orchestra manager Roger Hall wrote a CBS executive in 1960 that “the mating of Mr. Ormandy and Captain Kangaroo is somewhat out of character.” This, and more, awaits you on the 4th floor of the Van Pelt Library in the heart of the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. For more information, write Dick at griscom@pobox.upenn.edu or call him at 215/898-3450.

Posted by (author deleted) at 1:37 PM

January 20, 2006

Job Opening at UVa

Member Mary Prendergast sends word that the University of Virginia is seeking a Head of the Music Library at UVa in Charlottesville, VA. The job ad is currently available on the UVa Libraries website.

Posted by (author deleted) at 9:43 AM

Indiana University of Pennsylvania Music Library makes the Albert R. Casavant Collection Available

For nearly twenty years, the IUP Music Library has had a special collection of marching band and drill team materials donated by Albert R. Casavant. This collection has finally been cataloged and is available for public use.

Casavant (1917-2002) was a highly acclaimed marching band educator and clinician. In the 1950s, he was the driving force behind the development of precision drill, a style of marching where the band would create intricate formations using lines and small groups. This style became the standard for marching bands at football game halftime shows. Precision drill was also the immediate precursor to the drum corps style of marching today.

Casavant did extensive research to develop precision drill. His collection contains materials on military tactics, drills, uniforms and marching. He authored more than 150 instructional books showing band directors how to create precision drills and many of his published works are found in our collection. There are also some rare works not found in any other library, including several dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Three of the five Casavant children became university professors or researchers, working in fields that Casavant studied. A.R’s son Charles Casavant was a Professor of Music and Director of “The Legend” the IUP Marching Band from 1976 to 2001.

–Carl Rahkonen, Music Librarian & Professor, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Posted by (author deleted) at 9:33 AM

Member Featured at MOUG

ATMLA member Howard Jaffe, a sound recordings cataloger at the Library of Congress, will be presenting a workshop at the 2006 Music OCLC Users Group conference in Memphis, Tenn. The workshop will cover the details of cataloging non-music sound recordings and will be geared to the interests of music catalogers and reference librarians. The session will take place Wednesday, February 22, from 8:00 – 9:20 am.

Posted by (author deleted) at 9:24 AM

May 6, 2005

More Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection

Coming up on Kile Smith’s monthly radio show Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection on Saturday, May 7, from 5 to 6 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 FM Philadelphia and webcast live at www.wrti.org:

• Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932). Piano Concerto No. 2 in E major, op. 12 (1893). BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Piers Lane, Alun Francis.
• Gösta Nystroem (1890-1966). Concerto for Viola and Orchestra “Hommage à la France” (1941). Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Nobuko Imai, Paavo Järvi.
• Interview with Mona Batt, daughter of Gösta Nystroem

Posted by (author deleted) at 11:40 AM

April 25, 2005

Fine Violins in Cyberspace: Exhibits at Gettysburg by Timothy Sestrick

The gifts left to Gettysburg College in 2003 by alumnus Dr. F. William Sunderman, Sr., class of 1919, have provided unique opportunities for exhibits, outreach, and information literacy instruction at Musselman Library.

In addition to $15 million for the establishment of a music conservatory, Gettysburg College also received Dr. Sunderman’s music library of over 1,000 string chamber music scores and parts, as well as his collection of fine 18th and 19th century violins, currently housed in the Library’s Special Collections. The online exhibit A Gift of Music provides more information about the bequest, and features images from the score collection as well as an interactive display of six of the violins. With help from Zoomify software and programming by James Rutkowski of the College’s ITT Department, users can zoom in or out on specific areas of each instrument, and rotate them 360 degrees.

The score collection, meanwhile, has become the focus of the library exhibit 200 Years of Music: The Sunderman Music Library Collection. This collaborative exhibit highlights items from the collection published over a span of nearly 200 years, including a ca.1790 edition of the Viotti Six Duos Concertans; an 1837 edition of the Schubert String Quartet in A-minor, D. 804; and numerous arrangements for violin and piano from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibit also includes some unpublished items, such as a ca.1950 manuscript for former Eastman School of Music Professor Bernard Rogers’ cantata The Prophet Isaiah.

Descriptive text for the exhibit was written by students from Professor Marta Robertson’s fall 2004 Music of the High Baroque, Classical, and Romantic Eras class. As part of a semester-long research project, students were assigned specific scores and asked to complete a number of assignments relating to physical description, intellectual content, and historical background. Information literacy sessions dealing with topics such as score formats, uniform titles for music, and catalog and database searching supported this research, which the students then summarized for the exhibit text.

The exhibit, located on the main floor of Musselman Library, is accompanied by an audio soundtrack loaded onto iPod digital music players available at the circulation desk. The soundtrack features a few unusual recordings, such as the only-known performance of The Prophet Isaiah from Eastman’s 1963 Festival of American Music; as well as works recorded specifically for the exhibit by the Covington String Quartet, the College’s quartet-in-residence. The Quartet also performed music from the exhibit, using violins from the Sunderman collection, at a concert held in the library.

–Timothy Sestrick, music librarian, Musselman Library, Gettysburg College

Posted by (author deleted) at 11:41 AM

March 31, 2005

More Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection

Coming up on Kile Smith’s monthly radio show Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection on Saturday, April 2, from 5 to 6 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 FM Philadelphia and webcast live at www.wrti.org:

• Maurice Wright (b.1949). Concerto for trombone, string orchestra, and harp (2004). Philadelphia Classical Symphony, Nitzan Haroz, Karl Middleman.
• François-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829). Symphony in E-flat Major, Op. 5, No. 2 (c.1761-62). London Mozart Players, Matthias Bamert.
• Interview with Maurice Wright

Posted by (author deleted) at 11:21 AM

March 4, 2005

Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection

Our own Kile Smith presents the monthly radio show Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection on the first Saturday of each month from 5 to 6 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 FM Philadelphia and webcast live at www.wrti.org.

In Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection, we uncover the unknown, rediscover the little-known, and take a fresh look at some of the remarkable treasures housed in the Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music in the Free Library of Philadelphia. The Fleisher Collection is the largest lending library of orchestral performance material in the world.

Saturday, March 5th, 2004, 5 to 6 pm

• John Powell (1882-1963). Rhapsodie nègre, for piano and orchestra (1918), 16:19 . Los Angeles Philharmonic, Calvin Simmons, Zita Carno. New World Records 80228.
• John Powell. Symphony in A Major, “Virginia Symphony” (1945) movements 1, 4, 26:06. Virginia Symphony, JoAnn Falletta. Albany 589.
• Interview with Rolf Charlston.

Posted by (author deleted) at 1:40 PM

January 8, 2005

Music Collections at the University of Pennsylvania by Richard Griscom

As the oldest institution of higher education in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1751, has been the frequent choice of local musical organizations and musicians as a home for letters, scores, photographs, sound recordings, and other materials that document their contribution to Philadelphia’s rich musical heritage. This article describes some of the more significant collections housed at the Penn Library that offer researchers invaluable sources for studying the musical life of the city.

Early Philadelphia Music Making

Public subscription concerts were presented in Philadelphia as early as 1757, organized chiefly by Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791) — statesman, judge, inventor, and composer–who claimed the distinction of being “the first native of the United States who has produced a musical composition.” The Hopkinson Collection includes manuscripts of works by Hopkinson as well as copies he made for his own library of music by his contemporaries. These manuscript volumes are supplemented by thirteen volumes of printed music that represent an extraordinary compilation of eighteenth-century American and European music.

Musical Fund Society

In 1820, a group of professional and amateur musicians formed the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, the oldest American music benevolent society still existing to the present day. The society sponsored an extraordinary amount of musical activity throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. Vocal and instrumental departments were created and headed by the “Directors of the Music”; regular “practises” were scheduled on Thursdays during all but the summer months; and concerts were presented on a regular basis by society members, frequently with the assistance of guest soloists. These performances were often elaborate affairs requiring large forces of instrumentalists and singers, and the choice of repertory remained faithful to the Society’s goal to “promote a sound and critical musical taste in the community.”

To support this musical activity, the Society devoted significant funding to the establishment of a music performance library, made up of both printed music and manuscript copies of music that was unavailable for purchase. When only a score was available, orchestral parts were hand-copied, and on other occasions a score would be made from purchased printed parts. The Society also made copies of performance materials borrowed from such organizations as the Handel and Haydn Society of New York and the Moravian Brethren in Bethlehem. The result is a collection rich in first and early published editions of music as well as in contemporaneous manuscript copies.

The records and music library of the society were maintained in the society’s offices in Musical Fund Hall (806 Locust Street) until the sale of the hall in 1924. At that point, several arrangements were made for the preservation of these historic documents until they ultimately were donated by the society to the Penn Library in 1991. The music scores, parts, and sheet music are now housed in Annenberg Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and many have been individually cataloged.

The Musical Fund Society collection also includes correspondence, minute books, engagement books, and other archival materials. Because of the complicated history of subsequent transfers through the years, only a portion of the correspondence remains in the collection at the University of Pennsylvania. Most of it dates from 1946 to 1980, and comprises routine correspondence relating to membership matters, concerts, grants, and the business of the officers of the society. The series of minutes is fairly complete from 1820 through the mid-1950s. Engagement books for the Musical Fund Hall cover the period from 1883 to 1918, and they reveal interesting details about the social life of the city, since this was a period when the hall was used far more frequently for balls, union meetings, political meetings, religious services, vaudeville acts, and sporting events than for music concerts.

Dr. Edward Iungerich Keffer (1861-1933), a Philadelphia dentist and amateur musician, assembled a large collection of nineteenth-century sheet music and bequethed it to the society upon his death. The Keffer Collection of Sheet Music includes over 2,000 editions published from 1790 through 1895. Of these, over half were published in Philadelphia. Full-color scanned images of some of the music treating topics related to Philadelphia may be viewed at http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/keffer/philmus.html.

In an effort to encourage the composition of new chamber music, the society sponsored an international chamber-music composition competition in the mid-1920s. Among the over six hundred submissions was the Third String Quartet by Bela Bartok, who ended up sharing the first prize with Italian composer Alfredo Casella. The original performance materials of Bartok’s quartet were held by the society until 1991, when Gretel Ormandy, Eugene Ormandy’s widow, acquired them for the Penn Library’s Eugene Ormandy Collection. The gift included an autograph score of the quartet, a second manuscript score, partially in the hand of the composer, and a set of manuscript parts, with Bartok’s autograph corrections.

Stokowski and Ormandy

Since its founding in 1900, the Philadelphia Orchestra as been at the center of the musical life of the city, and the papers of Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, the conductors responsibile for building and sustaining the reputation of the orchestra over the course of seven decades, are preserved in the Penn Library.

Stokowski was also a prolific arranger, and his orchestral arrangements and transcriptions form the core of the Stokowski Collection at Penn. Although he was most famous for his transcriptions of organ music by J.S. Bach–such as the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor featured in Walt Disney’s “Fantasia”–only thirty-six of the over two hundred arrangements that survive are of music by Bach. Some of the other composers receiving Stokowski’s distinctive treatment are Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner.

The Eugene Ormandy Collection encompasses a broad range of materials, including correspondence, marked scores, photographs, and broadcast recordings. Ormandy’s daily routine included writing both personal and professional correspondence, and these letters make up the largest part of the collection. There are also letters written on Ormandy’s behalf by his secretaries and by orchestra management and replies received from Ormandy’s correspondents. Some notable correspondents of the 1930s and 1940s include Ormandy’s mentor, Jenö Hubay; Leopold Stokowski, whose letters offer insight into his working relationship with Ormandy; Stokowski’s wife, Olga Samaroff Stokowski, who championed the appointment of Ormandy as Stokowski’s successor; Alma Mahler-Werfel, with whom Ormandy consulted regarding Mahler’s work; Albert Einstein, who asked Ormandy to help violinist Boris Schwarz obtain his entry visa to the United States; composers such as Sergei Prokofiev, Percy Grainger, Sergei Rachmaninoff; and soloists such as Fritz Kreisler, Lotte Lehmann, and Lauritz Melchior. Personal correspondence with family members shows that Ormandy was deeply involved with his family and was willing to help them, particularly when they were pursuing careers in music.

Ormandy’s official correspondence related to the Philadelphia Orchestra often reflects the shifting nature of the relationship between management and players, particularly letters dating from the 1960s, when the discontent of the players led twice to strikes. The collection also contains correspondence with instrumentalists (or often their agents and mentors) who hoped to join the orchestra and with young soloists who wrote seeking advice. In addition, Ormandy corresponded with established solo artists, choir directors, and other conductors whom he sought to engage for performances.

Ormandy often commissioned works from composers, and there is correspondence concerning these commissions as well as two specific commissioning projects. The earlier project was funded by Reverend Theodore Pitcairn of Philadelphia and resulted in commissions awarded to one composer each year for five years, starting in 1960. The other was a commissioning project that was planned for the 1976 Bicentennial year and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Ormandy Collection includes an oral history collection consisting of the transcripts of ninety-three interviews conducted between 1969 and 1996. Four of the interviews were with Ormandy, and the rest were with conductors, soloists, composers, Philadelphia Orchestra members and administrative staff, other professional colleagues, family, and friends. The original tape recordings are also a part of the collection.

The Stokowski and Ormandy collections include over 2,000 scores and and sets of parts marked by the conductors for rehearsals and performances with the Philadelphia orchestra. Stokowski treated his scores as scrapbooks and often pasted in postcards, photos, related texts, and letters.

Marian Anderson

The University of Pennsylvania is the principal repository for documents concerning the life and career of singer Marian Anderson. Her music library and personal memorabilia are now housed just a short distance from the neighborhood where she grew up. The papers comprise 495 boxes and include correspondence, business records and contracts, biographical materials, notes, journals, calendars, and financial documents. Programs and publicity materials documenting her singing career are extensive, as is the collection of awards and honorary degrees she received.

The Marian Anderson Collection also includes her entire music library and her collections of sound recordings and photographs, all of which have been separately cataloged. The music library contains more than 2,000 songs in manuscript–including many by Florence Price–as well as more than 2,000 printed scores. Interviews with Howard Taubman and with Studs Terkel and lectures featuring Miss Anderson on audio tape have also been preserved and cataloged. Among the most interesting recordings are those made of rehearsals in her home studio and the test pressings of her commercial recordings. The thousands of photographs in the collection are preserved in albums and scanned on the website of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (http://www.library.upenn.edu/special/photos/anderson).

Rudolf Serkin

One of the most recent additions to the music-related collections at Penn are the papers of pianist Rudolf Serkin (1903-1991), which include correspondence, reviews, and clippings related to his performing career as well as his teaching and administrative work at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Marlboro Festival. Among the correspondents are cellist Pablo Casals, violist Alexander Schneider, violinist Adolf Busch, artistic manager Arthur Judson, recording executive Goddard Lieberson, and his son Peter. The Serkin Collection is not yet cataloged and processed, so a detailed listing of the holdings is not available.

Working with Materials at Penn

Because of their age and condition, most of the materials described in this article are held in the Walter H. & Leonore Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library, located on the sixth floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library. The entrance to the building faces Locust Walk between 34th and 36th Streets. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 4:45 pm, and Saturday from noon to 4:00 pm during the fall and spring academic semesters. The library is open to all who need to consult its collections. Readers must provide current photographic identification for admission to both Van Pelt-Dietrich Library and this department. Please call 215/898-7088 for more information. To view selected items from the Penn Library’s music special collections, browse the “virtual exhibitions” at http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/music.

–Richard Griscom, head, Otto E. Albrecht Music Library, University of Pennsylvania

Posted by (author deleted) at 8:29 AM

January 7, 2005

Hosting a Chapter Meeting, From the Inside by Beth Royall

Do you feel the fickle finger of fate tapping your shoulder to host an Atlantic Chapter meeting? Fall 2004 was my turn. There had never been a Music Library Association chapter meeting in West Virginia, and President Carl Rahkonen set out to remedy this. Actually, Carl didn’t have to do much arm-twisting, and I had good support from the West Virginia University Libraries administration. A detailed guide from Amanda Maple and many helpful hints from Mary Prendergast made the planning manageable.

Hosting a chapter meeting involves all the things you naturally expect – arranging meeting rooms and equipment, providing information on local events, restaurants and hotels. It also involves responsibilities you might not expect. Some of the local arrangements tasks that weren’t initially on my radar were key participation in program selection, webpage design, registration, reception food and entertainment. The program selection, reception food and entertainment areas are opportunities to showcase the best of your local offerings. The Friday reception and entertainment have traditionally been sponsored by the hosting library, so if this kind of expense requires approval from your library administration, the smooth thing is to include these estimates in your initial proposal to host the meeting (she says with 20/20 hindsight).

Registration also involves small expenses for name tags and folders. The ideal arrangement is to have another MLA member or two in the area help with registration, both ahead of time and on the meeting day. But lacking fellow MLAers, any generous colleague is a great help.

So, what was special at the WVU meeting of the Atlantic Chapter? Most people don’t expect to find a world-class steel drum program in Morgantown, West Virginia, so the Friday reception showcased a small, semi-pro group under the direction of graduate student Shawn Roberts. Chair-elect Steve Landstreet took the opportunity to focus on West Virginia music in three of the four programs, recruiting local experts – Dr. Christopher Wilkinson, WVU Professor of Music History, and Dr. John Cuthbert, Curator of the WVU Libraries’ West Virginia and Regional History Collection. Dovetailing nicely with these local presenters was ATMLA’s own Carl Rahkonen, and his personal tour of West Virginia traditional music venues. And to give us all something concrete and immediately useful to take home, ATMLA’s Anne Harlowe discussed Temple University Libraries’ work in developing guides for evaluating scholarly credentials, applied to the performing arts.

Hosting an Atlantic Chapter meeting allows you to showcase the treasures of your institution – the people, the facilities, the geography, the programs. It’s also an opportunity to participate in every facet of conference preparation, on a small, friendly scale.

Posted by (author deleted) at 11:38 AM

January 6, 2005

In Memoriam, Yale Fineman by Bruce Wilson

Yale Fineman (1951—2004) passed away December 2, his fifty-third birthday, following a courageous battle with lung cancer. He was appointed Music Librarian and Head of Reference and Circulation in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library at the University of Maryland in August 2002, and had been Acting Head of that Library since July 2004.

After earning a Master of Arts in Musicology from Tufts University (1994) and Master of Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh (1995), Yale started his library career in Pittsburgh. He worked first briefly at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and then, from 1996 to 1998, in the Music and Art Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He left to assume the post of User Services Librarian in the Duke University Music Library in 1998.

Yale is known widely among his colleagues in the Music Library Association as the creator of DW3 Classical Music Resources, while he was at Duke University. He wrote about that project in the Music Library Association Notes (March 2002) under the title “The Economics of Information: DW3 and the Case for Creating a Music Megasite.” Professionally active and articulate through publications and presentations on various aspects of digital information dissemination and bibliography, Yale’s most recent article on “Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Music” appeared in the June 2004 issue of Notes.

Those who knew Yale well knew him also as a brilliant classical guitarist with an abiding love for Spanish music, which he had studied, practiced, and performed for thirty-five years. He was a noted expert on the music of Isaac Albeniz. His repertoire spanned five centuries of western music, ranging from Renaissance polyphony to jazz-influenced, Latin-American tunes. Upon learning of Yale’s cancer diagnosis earlier in 2004, friends and colleagues in MLA’s Southeast and Atlantic Chapters paid tribute to him by commissioning John Mayrose, a Duke friend and colleague and recent recipient of ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Award, to compose a composition for classical guitar in his honor. They presented “Cascada” to Yale in June 2004.

Yale will be remembered by his colleagues as a vivid presence, dedicated in equal measure to librarianship, service, scholarship, and musicianship—and as a loyal friend who touched numerous lives across the country. He is survived by his wife Carol, two brothers, and his mother. Notes of condolence and remembrance can be sent to the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, in care of Debra Reed, 2511 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, College Park MD 20742. Contributions to the Yale Fineman Memorial Fund, made out to the University of Maryland College Park Foundation (memo: Yale Fineman Memorial Fund) can be mailed to the Performing Arts Library address above.

–Bruce Wilson, Retired Head of the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, University of Maryland, College Park

Posted by (author deleted) at 9:22 PM

ATMLA welcomes its newest members

Several new members have joined the Atlantic Chapter of MLA this past year. In what we hope to be a continuing feature of this blog, we are including short biographical sketches of our newcomers (in one case, a true Newcomer) so that members might better get to know them. We hope that they will join us in Vancouver and at future chapter meetings. Read on to learn who has joined our ranks and please help make them feel welcome!

Joe Clark is the Digital and Audiovisual Media Librarian at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His duties include management of the Library Media Department and Slide Library and liaison duties for the Music, Theater, Dance, and Visual Arts Departments. Before entering music librarianship, he worked throughout the Western U.S. as a professional guitarist and educator. Joe holds an M.A. in Ethnomusicology from Arizona State University, an M.A. in Library Science from the University of Arizona, and a B.A. in music from the University of Utah.

Linda Dempf is the Music & Media Librarian at The College of New Jersey. She recently earned an MLS from Indiana University, where she gained experience in their Music Library, Main Library and Lilly Library (Rare Books and Manuscripts). Prior to entering the library field, she was a professional musician, and earned a BM from Mannes College of Music, an MM from St. Louis Conservatory, and a DM from Indiana University. Her studies included concentrations in horn, music history, and women’s studies. This blend of interests is reflected in her doctoral thesis, “All-Women Orchestras in the United States and the Story of the Woman’s Symphony Orchestra of Chicago.” An avid natural horn player, she has performed with Apollo’s Fire, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, Aradia Baroque Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Chicago Opera Theatre, and Early Music New York.

Richard Griscom moved east from the University of Illinois in May 2004 to become head of the Atto E. Albrecht Music Library at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with his wife, a physician practicing in Maryland and Delaware. Dick joined MLA in 1981, and his move east marks his first foray outside the Midwest Chapter. His MLA activities include terms as member-at-large of the board of directors (1989-91), executive secretary (1992-96), and editor of NOTES (1997-2000).

Terra Mobley is Music Librarian at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. She earned an M.L.I.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Terra has a B.S. in Music Education (Vocal) from Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY. Terra spent a short time teaching elementary general music and substitute teaching in New York State. When her family moved to Wisconsin, she began working at Waupaca Public Library as Interlibrary Loan and Audio-Visual Librarian. Her duties there included interlibrary loan, reference desk, collection development, and some web maintenance.

Nara Newcomer is a Visiting Assistant Librarian (Cataloger) at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV, where her duties include supervising cataloging operations and working with the music collection. This spring, she is also serving as an adjunct instructor for the Shepherd Department of Music and Theater, teaching a course in Music History. Nara earned her M.L.S. and an M.A. in Music History from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she was a graduate assistant in the Music Library. Her M.A. thesis was titled “The American Organ Reform, 1945-1960.” In addition to library work, Nara is an organist and church musician.

Carlos Peña has been the technical services assistant at the University of Pittsburgh’s Theodore M. Finney Music Library since November 2003. He is currently enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences and expects to graduate with the MLIS degree in August 2005. Carlos began his library career as a page and clerk at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in 1995. He became an assistant at the Music and Art Department in 2000 where his primary duties included reference work and collection development of the jazz and popular recordings collections. He continues at the Music and Art Department on a part-time basis.

Having earned a B.A. in anthropology from Pitt, Carlos also spent 10 years studying classical and jazz piano. He earned a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts as a guitarist in 1992 and currently plays the vibraphone in Pitt’s jazz ensemble. He continues to work as a freelance instrumentalist in the Pittsburgh area. This year Carlos is attending his first MLA conference in Vancouver as a recipient of the Association’s Kevin Freeman Travel Grant.

Tim Sestrick is Music Librarian at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He has an M.L.S from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he was a graduate assistant in the Music Library; an M.A. in Percussion Performance from Indiana University of Pennsylvania; and undergraduate degrees in Music Performance and Liberal Arts. He has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, with the Rochester Oratorio Society and Rochester Bach Festival, and with the Johnstown and Altoona Symphony Orchestras.

Mary Wedgewood is a newly arrived senior music cataloger at the Library of Congress. Prior to arriving in Washington, she worked for OCLC Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba as a contract (read “outsourcing”) music cataloger for major Canadian universities. In addition, she has worked in academic and public libraries (reference and cataloging) in several Canadian and U.S. institutions and has taught music history, music literature, and keyboard instrument performance. Earlier in her career, she worked for Otto Harrassowitz in Wiesbaden, Germany for 2 years.

Mary studied at Macalaster College in Jacksonville, IL (mathematics), the University of Arkansas (organ performance), the University of Chicago (library science), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (music history).

She currently serves as choir director/organist at 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington DC. She lives in Washington with her husband Richard, recently retired from the University of Manitoba. They have 2 children, students at Purdue University in Indiana and at Coe College in Iowa.

Steve York is the Cataloging Librarian at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA. A native of Nebraska, Steve earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree in 1987 from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. Over the next 9 years, he was an announcer and the Music Director for Nebraska Public Radio, a 9-station network offering classical music and NPR news and public affairs programming.

In 1996, he moved with his wife Annette to the DC metro area where he worked in a large music retail store and performed with several area professional choirs including the Washington Bach Consort and the Palestrina Choir. This led to performance opportunities in some of DC’s great venues including the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, St. Matthews Cathedral, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at Catholic University, the German Embassy, and the White House.

In 2001, he and Annette (and their 17 year old cat, Pamina) moved to Bloomington, IN so Steve could pursue his MLS at Indiana University, where he had the opportunity to work and intern in the IU Music Library.

Posted by (author deleted) at 11:43 AM

January 4, 2005

Ut re mi fa sol la si … blog

Welcome to the Newsletter of ATMLA. It’s been awhile since we’ve produced one of these things, though it wasn’t for lack of good intentions. For the first few years of our chapter’s nascent existence (we formed from a merger of the Pennsylvania and Chesapeake chapters in 2000), Kile Smith, curator of the Fleisher Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia, did a masterful job of producing a yearly compendium of our news. But we’ve had a hard time getting it back off the ground since Kile finished his tenure.

So last fall I suggested to our incoming president Steve Landstreet that we might want to turn the newsletter into a weblog or ‘blog’. And like any good leader Steve knew to assign the work to the unfortunate soul who thought up the bright idea in the first place. So here we are several months later. I am now the blog editor and communications committee chair, and the ATMLA Newsletter/Blog is finally a reality.

But why a blog instead of a newsletter? And what’s the difference, anyhow? Experts disagree on the definition of a ‘blog’, but in its simplest form, a blog is a collection of successive entries presented on the web and produced by special software that makes editing and updating a snap. Some blogs are highly personal, allow comments, or trace the connections between a network of otherwise random bloggers. Ours will be centered on the distribution of news from our members and their libraries, will be quickly and easily updated as our news hits the stacks, and will—in most ways—look a lot like a “traditional” online newsletter.

There will be several ways that you the reader can access our blog. First off, one may always visit the chapter website and click on the link for the blog. For those who are a bit tech-savvy, you may subscribe to the blog in a newsreader or aggregator such as Bloglines. And hopefully coming soon, there will be the option to subscribe to periodic e-mail updates.

Stay tuned. And blog on.

–John Anderies, Music Librarian, Haverford College

Posted by (author deleted) at 4:56 PM