Stories and Lessons from the World’s Leading Opera, Orchestra Librarians, and Music Archivists, Volume 1: North and South America

This volume contains two Open Access Chapters

Volume 1 of the two part collection Stories and Lessons from the World’s Leading Opera, Orchestra Librarians, and Music Archivists, explores the current trends and practices in the field of music performance librarianship. Featuring interviews and conversations from over twenty orchestra, opera, and ballet librarians and archivists working for some of the world’s leading performing arts and educational institutions from North and South America, this book is a helpful resource to librarians, and archivists who need to manage artifacts in a variety of situations in the world of performing arts.

For music and library science professors, this serves as a useful teaching tool or reference material by allowing students to gain a glimpse into the profession of music performance librarianship. Finally, this book functions as a unique and important reference tool for all students who are considering a career in music performance librarianship or a profession in archives in the world of performing arts.

Patrick Lo is currently serving as the Director, International Library & Cultural Services Consultancy, Ltd. From 2012-2018, he served as Associate Professor at the Faculty of Library, Information & Media Science, the University of Tsukuba in Japan. He earned his Doctor of Education from the University of Bristol (U.K.), and has a Master of Arts in Design Management from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a Master of Library & Information Science from McGill University (Canada), and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Mount Allison University (Canada).

Robert Sutherland recently retired as the Chief Librarian at the Metropolitan Opera where he served from 1993 to 2020. Prior to joining the Metropolitan Opera, he served as the Principal Librarian at Canadian Opera Company and Principal Librarian of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. He has served three terms as President of MOLA: An Association of Music Performance Librarians. In April, 2016 he was a featured speaker at the Music Performance Art and Neuroscience in Dialogue symposium in Tübingen, Germany.

Wei-En Hsu is Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and was awarded the Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 2017. In recent years, Mr. Hsu has established himself as an early music specialist in Baroque opera and the art of recitative for pianists.Winner of the 2010 Los Angeles International Liszt Piano Competition, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from National University of the Arts, and Master of Music from The Julliard School and The Royal Academy of Music.

Russ Girsberger is the Librarian for the Naval School of Music in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is the author of A Manual for the Performance Library (Music Library Association Basic Manual Series); A Practical Guide to Percussion Terminology; Percussion Assignments for Band and Wind Ensemble; co-author of The Music Performance Library: A Practical Guide for Orchestra, Band, and Opera Librarians; Sourcebook for Wind Band and Instrumental Music; and co-editor of Insights and Essays on the Music Performance Library (all published by Meredith Music Publications). He has worked as a librarian with the United States Marine Band in Washington, D.C., the Percussive Arts Society, the New England Conservatory, and The Juilliard School.