The Music Division commemorates the 160th birthday of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a trailblazing American philanthropist and musician who founded the Library's concert series and commissioning program, and established the longstanding tradition of public-private philanthropic partnerships at the institution. Explore previous Founder's Day concerts and learn more about this storied titan of American music history.
The 2023-2024 season of Concerts from the Library of Congress came to a rousing conclusion on June 20 with a performance by New Orleans-based band Cha Wa. As final preparations are made for the 2024-2025 season announcement, the Music Division is pleased to share a multitude of concert and event videos that have been released …
The Concerts from the Library of Congress series embarks on a two-day immersion into the horn trio repertoire this coming weekend. Per usual, we’re pulling out all the stops, with the help of the distinguished Takt Trio (Austin Wulliman, violin, David Byrd-Marrow, horn, and Conor Hanick, piano). Two Library of Congress commissions will receive their …
The following is a guest post from Music Division Archivist Janet McKinney. To watch Janet discuss Howard Ashman’s influence on “The Little Mermaid,” check out this video on the Library of Congress’s YouTube channel. The recent live-action remake of the Disney classic The Little Mermaid (1989) inspires those of us who preserve our cultural history …
The Library of Congress celebrated the acquisition of the Neil Simon Papers by hosting a conversation with actors Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker who currently star in the Broadway revival of Simon's comedy Plaza Suite. Watch a recording of their conversation with Plaza Suite director John Benjamin Hickey, as well as a video overview of the Simon Papers featuring Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz.
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.
On November 9, 2021, Senior Music Specialist Mark Horowitz presented a webinar on the creation of the 1957 musical "West Side Story," drawing on materials from the Leonard Bernstein Collection, the Arthur Laurents Papers, and the Oliver Smith Papers to illustrate his talk. Learn more about the history of the musical and how to find digitized "West Side Story" material on the Library's website before viewing the Spielberg's new film adaptation.
Jazz specialist Larry Appelbaum retired from the Library of Congress on March 31, 2020. Larry reflects on his career at the Library of Congress and provides links to interviews, panels, and blog posts he created and facilitated at the Library of Congress.
In 2007, the Library presented back-to-back concerts with two quintessential New Orleans pianists Henry Butler and Allen Toussaint. Mr. Toussaint was in the news recently because his legacy studio recordings, long thought lost in the flood from Hurricane Katrina, turned up at a swap meet in Torrance, California. Toussaint wrote, arranged and produced many hits …
