Along with some great music, I heard a lot of great stories at Tuesday night’s ASCAP concert, from distinguished Congressmen and legendary songwriters alike. But one of the best stories came from a Library co-worker, who was thoroughly excited that I took her picture with Hal David after the concert ended. Galina Teverovsky, a technician …
Visitors to Pisa are practically obligated to pose for a photo in which they pretend to hold up her famous leaning tower. This week’s featured picture illustrates that such urges are seized even by musical legends such as Gerry Mulligan, in this photo made by his wife Franca. While a trip to Italy requires planning …
I first met composer and multi-instrumentalist David Amram 25 years ago when we did a late night radio interview at WPFW-FM. I knew about his music, of course, his film scores (The Manchurian Candidate, Splendor In The Grass, Pull My Daisy) and collaborations with leading jazz, classical, folk and world music artists. But that free-wheeling …
This week’s featured picture is from the Herta Moselsio Collection, a remarkable body of work that can be found in our Martha Graham presentation. In 1939, film maker Moselsio worked with Martha Graham to film her work Lamentation, which premiered in New York in 1930. This iconic work of Graham places the solo dancer on …
Legendary blues singer Bessie Smith was born on this day in 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Portions of this blog post were taken from the online exhibit, American Treasures of the Library of Congress. Bessie Smith gained immediate success in 1923 with her first recording “Down Hearted Blues”/”Gulf Coast Blues.” Her renditions of Negro life in …
They say that March comes in like a lion but goes out like a lamb. In the Muse struggled to find the lamb in a cold and gloomy first week of spring. But if March went out like, say, a horse, perhaps it offered us a touch of mirth in the form of this week’s …
This week’s featured image is a charming collage assembled to honor today’s birthday celebrant. Russian Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff was born on this day in 1873. This hand-made birthday invitation was donated by Oxana Siloti, a relative of the maestro. The Music Division is home to the Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive, forty-two feet of shelf space which includes …
In the Muse rings in the new season with our foray into territories forged by our colleagues at In Custodia Legis and Inside Adams, who have both established Pic of the Week features. We inaugurate the Music Division’s unique iteration of this feature with an image from a collection which has been the subject of …