Grammy Museum grant will help digitize Pitt concert recordings

Pitt’s Theodore M. Finney Music Library has received a Grammy Museum Grant to support the digitization and preservation of 210 hours of performances from its Emerging Masters Collection.

James CassaroThe endangered recordings are currently on 395 open reel audio tapes. Once transferred to digital files, the recordings will be available to researchers worldwide on the University Library System’s Digital Collections website. The grant is for $11,461.

The recordings cover many concerts given at Pitt between 1969 and 1989, most of it contemporary music by Pitt-trained composers such as David Stock and Reza Vali. While the annual Pitt Jazz Concert is not included, there are recordings that Pitt Jazz Studies Program founder Nathan Davis made when he joined the faculty in 1969. There is also early music by the late Geri Allen when she was a student of Davis’ in the early 1980s. Some concerts were given by visiting performers. Others are full-length operas conducted by professor emeritus Don Franklin. The Music on the Edge series and Heinz Chapel Choir concerts are not included.

“Having this music available digitally will demonstrate Pitt’s rich heritage of music performance as well as the Music Department’s cutting-edge programs in composition and performance,” said library head and Professor of Music James Cassaro, from the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. “Pitt leads the way in support of music both old and new.”

Pitt is one of 13 institutions to receive a total of more than $200,000 in Grammy Museum grants this year. The museum is a nonprofit cultural organization that has awarded $7.5 million to more than 400 grantees.

— Pittwire