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Category: Special Collections

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Happy New Year

Posted by: Pat Padua

The Music Division wishes you a happy New Year’s Eve.  If you find your midnight kiss watched over by the winking satellite pictured in “Under the Midnight Moon,” from the Historic Sheet Music Collection, 1800-1922 in the Performing Arts Encylcopedia –  please, call a cab. Celebrate New Year’s Day with the Bernsteins with this holiday greeting …

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R.I.P. Dr. Billy Taylor

Posted by: Larry Appelbaum

Pianist, composer Dr. Billy Taylor did so many things so well for so long, it’s hard to believe he’s now gone. Taylor grew up in Washington D.C. and told me a story about being 11 years old and seeing his hero Fats Waller at the Lincoln Theater. He waited around backstage to say how much …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Posted by: Pat Padua

The following is a guest post by Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz. As it’s the holiday season, it seems appropriate to express thanks for a series of extraordinary opportunities that the Music Division has afforded me…and to celebrate some of the other good things they lead to. It mostly started in 1996 with a grant …

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MacDowell Reconsidered

Posted by: Pat Padua

The following is a guest post by Senior Music Specialist Robin Rausch. The weekend of December 3-5, I participated in a MacDowell Festival & Symposium at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, to commemorate the 150th birthday (on December 18th) of the distinguished American composer Edward MacDowell.   MacDowell is generally acknowledged to be the first American …

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Happy Birthday to Us!

Posted by: Pat Padua

One year ago today, In the Muse launched with Meet the Music Division, a post that interviewed several staff members about their personal experience with Beatlemania.  Since then, we’ve brought you news of Music Division events, including our world-renowned concert programs. We’ve highlighted a wide variety of treasures from the collection – from old maestros like Bach …

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From Page to Stage with the Music Division

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 …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Gottlieb on Kodachrome

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 …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Time Out for Dave Brubeck

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 …