January 19th was the birthday of country music legend Dolly Parton. The Library awarded Parton Living Legend status in 2004. As a longtime fan, I was privileged to be able to attend the Living Legend concert, and furthered my studies in Dollymania a few years later with a a New Year’s Eve pilgrimage to her …
The following is a guest post by Robin Rausch, Senior Music Specialist. In 1922, Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch’s American experience had soured. He did not wish to become an American citizen after all—he would return to Europe. But a visit to his friend, Music Division chief Carl Engel, changed his mind. It was Bloch’s first trip …
When we’re not awarding honors to Knighted former Beatles, we in the Music Division are caretakers of one of the great performing arts archives in the world. It’s an embarrassment of riches, and a lifetime could be spent studying just the online collections in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia (the website formerly known as I Hear America Singing). But then you’d miss the deep catalog available on the Library campus, from a 15th-century manuscript on vellum to back issues of Creem magazine; exhibits in the lobby of the Performing Arts Reading Room; the popular concert series in the Coolidge Auditorium; and, last but far from least, the expertise and enthusiasm of our diverse staff.
From a solo piano arrangement of Beethoven's Concerto in E-flat major
I was going to launch In the Muse, the Performing Arts Blog, with an introduction to the rich collection of what is one of the premier Performing Arts archives in the world. I was going to guide you, the reader, into the deepest recesses of the Performing Arts Encyclopedia, and highlight the world-renowned concert series in …