Anglophiles and British ex-pats will have a home this Friday in the Coolidge Auditorium at 12pm. The Library of Congress Chorale will perform “Britannia,” a concert celebrating the choral traditions of Great Britain. I happen to be the conductor of said ensemble and am an Anglophile through and through. I had the opportunity to complete …
Are you a fan of American Idol? Remember the Gong Show? Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour was the granddaddy of today’s top amateur talent shows. During its radio heyday in the mid-1930s, thousands of hopefuls traveled to New York City to audition, competing for a handful of slots on the weekly broadcast. Along with the …
Michael Feinstein, host of NPR Music’s “Song Travels,” recently interviewed Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal about Cash’s new album The River and the Thread. Rosanne Cash, in-residence at the Library of Congress from December 5-7, 2013, will perform in two concerts and present a talk with U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey. Here’s a special preview …
“I feel this record ties past and present together through all those people and places in the South I knew and thought I had left behind.” Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash is talking about her new album The River and the Thread, which she will premiere during a three-day residency at the Library of Congress that begins …
The Music Division’s archival collections feature the archives and personal papers of some of the most significant and influential artists and figures in music history, particularly 20th-century composers, conductors, scholars, and publishers. When researchers and performers think of the Music Division’s archival collections, names like Leonard Bernstein, George and Ira Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Serge Koussevitzky, …
The Library of Congress, in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, maintains an exciting web portal for Native American Heritage Month. This web portal aggregates digital resources (exhibits, digitized print resources, audio and video) …
Friday, November 22, 2013 marks the hundredth birthday of British composer Benjamin Britten, OM, CH (1913-1976), who is known for revolutionizing opera and British art music in the twentieth century. Britten holds a special place in the heart of the Music Division at the Library of Congress, as we house the manuscripts of two of …
The following is a guest post from retired cataloger Sharon McKinley. I’ve always enjoyed living vicariously through the Music Division’s special collections. Staffers who work in the Acquisitions and Processing Section become quite intimate with the collections they process. The rest of us are more likely to happen upon wonderful finds by serendipitous means. The …
There comes a time in every anniversary year when the candles must be blown out—this year it is a necessity, as 200 candles each for Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi constitute a fire hazard, and the Library does not want to host its own “immolation” scene. But Wotan to your seats—Concerts from the Library of …
