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Category: Curators

Acquisition Highlights for the Past Year – a Top Five List!

Posted by: Cait Miller

This is a guest post from Head of Acquisitions & Processing Vin Novara, with Senior Music Specialists Mark Eden Horowitz, Kate Rivers, and Ray White.   Nick Hornby’s book “High Fidelity” (1995) features an entertaining look at the quirks of people who intensely collect on music. Top five lists feature prominently throughout the work. As …

Engraving depicting a scene from Verdi's opera adaptation of Macbeth

Shakespeare Everywhere: From the Stacks to the Coolidge Stage

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

This autumn, many of Washington, D.C.’s arts and culture venues are collaborating to present the Shakespeare Everywhere Festival. The Library of Congress is pleased to participate in this gathering of theatrical productions, concerts, lectures, and educational events on offer through December 31, 2023. Bibliophiles and music lovers can experience two special events as part of …

Entrance doors to the Performing Arts Reading Room with exhibit artwork on wall and window showing a quartet performing in the Coolidge Auditorium and a vintage photo of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge.

From Pioneer to the Performing Arts Reading Room: Vampira Treasures from the Lester Horton Collection

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Learn more about the Music Division’s connection to the cult icon Vampira, as created by Maila Nurmi. The following is a guest post written by Morgan Davis, Music Reference Specialist, Music Division. About a year ago, documentarian R.H. Greene contacted the Music Division’s reference team in search of a photo from the Lester Horton Dance …

Cover of sheet music for "Batterin' Babe", blue and white text with image of Babe Ruth swinging and hitting a ball while in a Red Sox uniform.

Baseball Beats: Music for the Fall Classic

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

We have several serious baseball fans here in the Music Division. At least several members of our team root for the current hometown Washington Nationals (“N-A-T-S, Nats, Nats, Nats, woo!”), the neighboring Baltimore Orioles (“Let’s Go, O’s!”), and the handful of New England transplants are ardent Boston Red Sox fans. With all this baseball energy …

Engraving of two individuals playing stringed instruments.

Exploring the Music Division’s Collection of 15th-17th Century Anthologies with Susan Clermont

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres, Stacey Jocoy, and Susan Clermont of the Music Division contributed to this blog. Senior Music Reference Specialist Susan Clermont recently published an authoritative annotated bibliography and accompanying research guide focused on the Music Division’s 306 anthologies of music dating from 1463 – 1701. These anthologies comprise over 12,000 individual works by over …

Curator James Wintle points out a detail on Renaissance sheet music while bassist Duff McKagan and two of his guests look on.

Be Like Duff McKagan and Experience Treasures in the Music Division’s Collections

Posted by: Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres

The Music Division’s wide-ranging collections in music, dance, and theater offer countless points of connection for visitors, researchers, and musicians alike. One of the great joys of working in the Music Division is curating treasures displays for groups of students, touring musicians, and special guests. While the displays are always tailored to the interests or …

Portrait of Maia Bang seated holding her violin in the 1923 supplement of her violin method.

Who Was Maia Bang Hohn?

Posted by: Melissa Wertheimer

Back in October 2021, my dear colleagues in the Music Division Concert Office asked me to film a short curator talk about our world famous Nicolò Paganini holdings. As I learned more about Maia Bang Hohn, whose widower Charles sold the materials to the Library, I realized that she is more than just a collector in a footnote. In this blog post, I share some of my findings that couldn’t make it into my brief video as well as reiterate some key ones that did.