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Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Constance Valis Hill, jazz tap dancer, choreographer, and scholar of performance studies. Her book, Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers (2000) received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Tap Dancing America, A Cultural History (2010) was supported by grants from the John Simon Guggenheim …
Posted in: Dance, Digital Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
It is a long cultural journey from President Teddy Roosevelt to pop singer Anne Murray to art house film director Peter Greenaway. But this is just one of the paths you can take using the new web presentation The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America as a starting point. At the turn of …
Posted in: Composers, Digital Collections, Sheet Music, Sound recordings, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The Music Division is proud to offer two new web presentations in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. The collection of notable dancer, choreographer and teacher Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972) contains a diverse variety of materials documenting dance and the arts in the twentieth century. Available here are over 200 collection items, including manuscripts, books, diaries, choreographic notebooks, …
Posted in: Dance, Digital Collections, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Our colleagues at In Custodia Legis recently shared a list of the ten most viewed pages at the Law Library of Congress. We in the Music Division give you the eleven most viewed individual items (not including presentation pages) from the Performing Arts Encyclopedia for the month of February. Thanks to Elizabeth Fulford Miller, Library …
Posted in: Digital Collections, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Selections from the Martha Graham Collection is a new web presentation now available in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Dancer, choreographer, and company director Martha Graham (1894-1991) is considered one of the pioneering founders of American modern dance. In a career spanning over seven decades, Graham developed her own innovative technique and produced an impressive legacy …
Posted in: Dance, Digital Collections, Special Collections, Women in Dance
Posted by: Pat Padua
Walt Whitman wrote, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear.” The American experience – the courage and the struggle and the hope of the American people – has long been reflected in her rich tradition of poetry and song. The Music Division reaches beyond Capitol Hill to celebrate this great tradition with The …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Digital Collections, Musicians
Posted by: Pat Padua
Many virtual servings of cake and ice cream are on hand this week in the Music Division, as we celebrate the birth dates of a veritable constellation of stars in the musical firmament. These October children grew to be the august personages who populate the Performing Arts Encyclopedia with dulcet tones – or, in some …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Digital Collections, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
The following is a guest post by Reference Specialist Caitlin Miller, who will soon be joining me as a regular blogger for In the Muse. About every six months or so, the Music Division welcomes a new exhibit into the Performing Arts Reading Room foyer. We are currently thrilled to host an exhibit dedicated to …
Posted in: Digital Collections, Musical Instruments, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Tickets are now available for the following concerts in the Coolidge Auditorium. All concerts are free but require tickets available from Ticketmaster. Click on the artist’s name below to reserve yours. Thursday, October 21 @8:00 pm Talich Quartet Masterworks performed by the second incarnation of one of the world’s finest quartets – the epitome of …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Digital Collections, Musicians