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Posted by: Cait Miller
Earlier this month, the Music Division welcomed five graduate students from The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University for a week-long research experience as they scoured through our collections in hopes of developing a new concert program based on materials only available at the Library of Congress. Tracy Wu (violin), Clara Yang (cello), Makiko …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Interviews
Posted by: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post by Contract Archivist Janet McKinney. At a time of year when the airwaves are saturated with holiday music, I continually hear the strains of one man’s iconic songs stand out from the rest – those of Irving Berlin (1888-1989). It occurred to me that many may not associate these …
Posted in: Composers, Guest bloggers, Holidays, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
Aaron Copland, eminent composer of 20th-century American music, was born 110 years ago yesterday, on November 14, 1900. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Aaron studied piano as a child and later studied with American composer and pianist Rubin Goldmark. In 1920, Copland traveled to Paris to study with renowned French composer, conductor and teacher Nadia …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Digital Collections, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
Does the name “Coolidge” sound familiar? If you’re a regular LC concert goer, or have taken a tour of the Jefferson Building, then you know about the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. Were you to assume that this venue was funded by or named for President Calvin Coolidge, you would be wrong! Our famous auditorium was constructed …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Women in Music
Posted by: Cait Miller
It’s that time again – today another 100 photographs have been uploaded to the Gottlieb Jazz Photos Set on Flickr! The set is comprised of uncropped images from the William P. Gottlieb Collection, all of which depict the Jazz scene in New York City and Washington, DC between 1938 and 1948. We keep adding more …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Digital Collections, Jazz, Special Collections
Posted by: Cait Miller
The Strads. They make string players salivate, and everyone knows the name to be synonymous with excellence. But how much do you really know about these pristine creatures of sound? Let’s start with the name – “Stradivarius”. Many are at least familiar with the fact that these string instruments were created by the famous violin …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Musical Instruments
Posted by: Cait Miller
One hundred twelve years ago on September 26th, Jacob Gershwine entered the world (the family name morphed around the turn of the century from “Gershovitz”, to “Gershvin”, to “Gershwin”; “Gershwine” was likely just an alternate spelling of “Gershvin”). This boy, raised in New York City with his three siblings by Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, would grow …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Jazz, Special Collections