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Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by James Wintle, Reference Specialist, and Mark Horowitz, Senior Music Specialist. This winter, one of the hottest tickets in Washington DC is the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s revival of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta Candide, in a new production written and directed by Mary Zimmerman. Fans of the show, who want to …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Next Friday the Music Division will release another batch of images from the William P. Gottlieb Collection to Flickr Commons. What makes this particular selection of images special, and a little more poignant, at least for me, can be found outside the image. If you look closely at the edges of the color images in …
Posted in: Jazz, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Saturday night the Music Division hosted a hand-clapping, foot-stomping evening with the Country Music Association‘s Songwriters Series. The assembled songwriters lined up on the Coolidge stage with just their voices and acoustic guitars, and although the Coolidge is not exactly a small venue, the spare instrumentation helped bring out a musical intimacy seldom found in …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Musicians
Posted by: Pat Padua
This week in Five Questions, a new feature on In the Muse, we chat with Reference Specialist Lisa Shiota. Lisa, what are you working on these days? I’m working on maintaining a pleasant demeanor in the Reading Room when helping patrons. It’s actually rewarding work– when I smile, speak calmly, and listen to their needs, …
Posted in: Staff, Staff Interviews
Posted by: Pat Padua
The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s recording of saxophonist Paul Desmond’s signature tune “Take Five” is one of the best known jazz compositions – even if you don’t know the name of it, you’ve heard it, anywhere from your local coffee shop to The Sopranos. Brubeck was the recipient of a Living Legend Award in 2003. Wish a …
Posted in: Birthdays, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Inspired by a regular interview feature on In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Library of Congress; and modelled after a feature on the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s blog, In the Muse brings you the first in a series of Five Questions. Our first participant is Solomon Haile Selassie, who works in the Music …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Special Collections, Staff, Staff Interviews
Posted by: Pat Padua
Free tickets will be available on Saturday evening, December 4, for the Country Music Association Songwriters Series featuring Little Big Town. The plantinum-selling vocal quartet is fresh off a wonderful performance at the CMA Christmas show, and will be joined at the Coolidge by songwriters Brett James (“Jesus, Take the Wheel,” recorded by Carrie Underwood; “When …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The Library of Congress just hosted the first of a new lecture series organized in conjunction with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the contemporary art arm of the Smithsonian Institution. Artist Maira Kalman spoke about, And the Pursuit of Happiness, an illustrated book that documents the author’s visit to Washington DC for the inauguration of …
Posted in: Musicians, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
In the Muse wishes you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. Between mashed potatoes and halftime, the musically inclined among our readership may wish to celebrate the day in song with Geo. W. Morgan’s’ “National Thanksgiving Hymn,” dedicated to then President Rutherford B. Hayes. After dinner, take an invigorating constitutional to work off that second …
Posted in: Holidays, Sheet Music, Special Collections