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Category: Composers

View from the Coolidge Auditorium stage looking out at the seats with a Steinway 9-foot piano on stage.

Now Streaming: Leslie Odom Jr., Lectures, and Artist Conversations

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Enjoy recently released event videos from the 2024-2025 season of Concerts from the Library of Congress. Highlights include a conversation with Tony Award-winner Leslie Odom Jr., lectures by Christoph Wolff and Harvey Sachs, Renée Fleming's appearance at the 2024 National Book Festival, AMS lectures, Henry Mancini at 100 events, and numerous pre-concert conversations with artists.

Photo of Scala in 1903 at his home. Seated outdoors.

A Note from President Lincoln

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

University of Kentucky MLS candidate Jay Stringer-Vaught discusses a unique item in the Music Division’s collections written by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862 to Francis Maria Scala, then-leader of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. Also learn about several past appearances by "The President's Own" on the Concerts from the Library of Congress series, which celebrates 100 years in 2025.

Image of part of the score for "The Three Caballeros" with text and notated music.

“Good Neighbors”: An Example of Mariachi in American Popular Culture

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Explore the way Disney showcased the work of Mexican songwriters Manuel Esperón and Ernesto Cortár in several popular animated films in the 1940s as part of their effort to incorporate FDR's "Good Neighbor" policy. The effort resulted in sharing elements of mariachi music with American film audiences. This guest blog by Music Reference Specialist Stacey Jocoy draws on an insightful interview with ethnomusicologist and mariachi expert Dr. Lauryn Salazar (Associate Professor of Music, Tarleton State University).

Contact sheet of multiple black and white images of Jonathan Larson in different seated poses.

“The Jonathan Larson Project” Sourced from Library of Congress Collection

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Discover how manuscripts from the Music Division's Jonathan Larson Collection have shaped the creation of "The Jonathan Larson Project," now running off-Broadway in New York. Senior Music Specialist Mark Eden Horowitz discusses how show creator Jennifer Ashley Tepper's research in the collection led to the creation of this new show that brings to the songs that did not make the final cut for some of Larson's major projects.