Forgotten Composers, a Cello Music Recital Featuring Yuriy Leonovich

The Cello Music Collection of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is home to the largest archival holding of cello music-related material in the world, including some of the world’s great cellists. It is the mission of the archive to preserve and make accessible manuscript and annotated sheet music and waiting for it to be musically resurrected through the hands of a musician. On Thursday, October 3rd, Special Collections and University Archives will be hosting a cellist who has accepted the challenge of reviving three compositions, two of which have not been publicly performed in the 21st century.

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, cellist, composer, and arranger Yuriy Leonovich immigrated to the United States with his family. His teachers include cellists Stephen Geber and Robert DeMaine, and composer James Hartway. Leonovich earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Cleveland Institute of Music. His compositions and arrangements have been played in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia/Oceania. His music, including the Rusalka Fantasie, has been recorded on the Five/Four Productions label. Leonovich holds the Assistant Cello Professor position at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC.

As a scholar and performer, Leonovich is a frequent researcher and visitor to the UNCG Cello Music Collection. It is out of this relationship that Leonovich and the curator of the collection, Stacey Krim, were inspired to offer a program open to the public, featuring some of the rarely performed music in the collection. In preparing for the October recital, Krim interviewed Leonovich, asking about his research and the uniqueness of the upcoming program.

Krim: Can you speak to the value of archival research for performers?

Leonovich: I am biased because libraries have been my second home for the last 23 years. Archives are often seen as a place for the elite scholars. Most performers love to have the reader's digest version of information handed to them. Their motto is, "just tell me what to play." Hundreds of thousands of musicians are sitting in orchestras and ensembles of all types, waiting for their conductor or leader to tell them what to play and how to play it. Most of these performers wouldn't know what to do with an archive.

Stacey Krim is unique in that she actively promotes the UNCG Archive, showing performers, students, and teachers the need to dig deeper. An archive is an invaluable window into the past. I think it's important for musicians to make informed decisions based on their own findings without the middleman. Middlemen tend to use condescension and peer pressure, speaking about certain scholars at certain popular music publishers. Find an archive near you in an area that interests you, and set up a time to talk to the curator. Even then, you will learn something great.

Krim: You have chosen to perform what some would consider an unconventional selection of music for this performance. What made you choose these pieces in particular?

Leonovich: Yagling was a no-brainer for me; I love Soviet music and remember hearing the finale of the Yagling Suite performed by Antonio Meneses on a Tchaikovsky Competition LP from 1982. With regards to the other two composers, Fitelberg and Jemnitz, I had never heard of them before. Once I saw the manuscripts, I found something pleasing about how they were written, the penmanship. These pieces have been very challenging to learn, but the sonic result has been very rewarding.

Krim: Do you have any additional plans for the music and composers you have selected beyond this performance?

Leonovich: I hope to give multiple performances of these works. In the case of Jemnitz, I am involved in a major research project and I made a studio recording of this sonata. I did a smaller research project on Fitelberg and recorded his sonata, now available on my website for download. I see myself digging more into Fitelberg in the future. I will definitely play and record Yagling, but have not researched her life too much yet. Yagling died only 8 years ago.

Krim: Why do performers seem to avoid 20th and 21st century composers?

Leonovich: One of the reasons musicians avoid modern and contemporary music is because they don't understand contemporary art. This is true across the fine and visual arts. There is often a knee-jerk reaction against the current and a tendency to embrace the classic. Within that group of people, there will be a majority that also enjoys the popular. When we talk about composers, we immediately think of "high art music." On the other side you have the contemporary pop music, which speaks more in laymen's terms and is music easier to understand. ...think of an art gallery vs. phone pictures on social media. Both art and popular music reflect the times in different ways. Often art music is more difficult to understand, thus, more difficult to sell to an audience.

Copyright laws play a big role in why performers intentionally and unintentionally avoid music from the last 100 years. Not to go into details, but publishers are currently the gatekeepers of music, and once the composer dies or the publisher goes out of business, the music also dies. The copyright law helps that music stay dead in some cases for 150 years. Because of self publishing, it's becoming easier to access new music.

I can say with confidence that all three pieces on this program have been dead for a long time. The version of Jemnitz I am playing has not been heard since 1933. The Fitelberg was most likely last performed in 1946.
______________________________________

If you are a interested in learning more about Leonovich and these compositions, or are a fan of cello music, please join us for Forgotten Composers, a Cello Music Recital Featuring Yuriy Leonovich, Thursday, October 3, 4:00 pm-5:30 pm in the Hodges Reading Room, 2nd Floor Main Building, W.C. Jackson Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Program:

Cello Sonata (1945), Jerzy Fitelberg

Cello Sonata, Op. 31, (1931, rev. 1933) Sándor Jemnitz

Suite for Violoncello Solo No. 1 (1982), Victoria Yagling

If there are any questions relating to this event, please contact Stacey Krim at 336.334.5498 or srkrim@uncg.edu.

A New Addition and an Epic Story: The UNC Greensboro Cello Music Collection welcomes the manuscripts and papers of Lubomir Georgiev

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections &University Archives is pleased to announce the donation of an important addition to the UNC Greensboro Cello Music Collection. The archive has received the manuscripts, personal papers, recordings and photographs of Bulgarian cellist, teacher, and composer, Lubomir Georgiev. This is a second, critical part to the initial sheet music collection, which was received in 2014. As the original donation only consisted of annotated sheet music, these recently donated materials contribute to understanding the breathtaking story behind Lubomir Georgiev as a performer, teacher, composer, and political refugee.

Lubomir Georgiev (b. Dec. 24, 1951, Varna, Bulgaria - d. May 31, 2005, Tallahassee, FL) studied with cellist Zdravko Jordanov, composer and violinist Marin Goleminov, and composer and pianist Alexander Raytchev at the Bulgarian State Academy of Music “Pantcho Vladigerov” in Sofia. He graduated with his Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance in 1976 and his Bachelor of Music in Composition in 1978. A talented performer, Georgiev’s reputation was established quickly in Bulgaria. He became principal cellist and soloist for the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra by 1978, touring throughout Europe and North America with the symphony. As a composer, Georgiev was winner of the Youth Creativity Award of the Bulgarian Composer’s Union in 1980 for his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, as well as first prize at the Carl-Maria von Weber International Competition in Dresden, Germany only a year later for his string quartet, Musica Multiplici Mentes. By his late 20s, Georgiev was a rising star as a performer and composer with ambitions to refine his musicianship and well along the path to making his name known worldwide. Unfortunately, to be overly aspiring in his homeland at this time was dangerous.

Georgiev performing as the soloist, 1981

Bulgaria between 1946 to 1990 actually was known as The People’s Republic of Bulgaria, controlled by the Bulgarian Communist Party in close alliance with the Soviet Union. It was a country in which the government diligently watched over and controlled the lives of its citizens, regulating external cultural influences so as to avoid any potential corruption or subversion to Communist ideology. Musicians, such as Georgiev, were permitted limited access to the arts and artists from non-communist countries, but there were few avenues for creative growth. The government enforced strict adherence to Communist values and state loyalty.

As an artist, Lubomir Georgiev recognized that Communism directly repressed the heart of his identity as a musician. When he became principal cellist in Sofia, it was demanded that he officially join the Communist Party, but he refused. Yet again, two years later in 1980, it was demanded that Georgiev join the Party, and he declined. Needless to say, this did not endear Georgiev to Communist officials. Georgiev’s clash with Communism culminated in 1986 during a visit to Bulgaria by the famous cellist, János Starker. This was Starker’s second visit to Bulgaria in which Georgiev was able to study with him, and on both occasions, Starker invited Georgiev to be his student at Indiana University Bloomington. The prospect to develop himself as a musician with such a legendary artist was the opportunity Georgiev craved and what was denied to him by living in a Communist country. He began making plans to travel to the United States to become Starker’s student.        

Georgiev performing in a master class for János Starker in Bulgaria 

Georgiev’s choice came with great risk; to travel to the United States, he would need an American visa, but it was forbidden for a Bulgarian citizen to directly contact anyone at the American Embassy. The Bulgarian government feared not only the potential for espionage, but also that its citizens would defect. Consequently, Georgiev arranged a secret meeting with a cultural attaché to the American Embassy in Sofia. They were set to meet at 3:00 pm on May 5, 1986 at a park bench in front of the National Theater.

Georgiev arrived at the meeting place early and saw the attaché approaching. Before the diplomat got to the bench, two men abducted Georgiev and transported him to a nearby building in which he was imprisoned in the basement. He was interrogated for several hours about his motives for contacting the American Embassy. Eventually, he was sent back to his house with his wife, where he was told to remain until contacted. The Bulgarian agent who originally questioned Georgiev visited him after two days and informed Georgiev that he would be allowed to travel to the United States on one condition; Georgiev was to serve as a spy for Bulgaria. He was given permission to leave Bulgaria for five months to study with Starker and was forced to leave his wife behind in Bulgaria. Georgiev made it to the United States on January 8, 1987 and would not set foot in Bulgaria again until after the fall of the Communist government.

When it became apparent that Georgiev was not serving as a spy and had no plans to return to Bulgaria, government officials began to get nervous. Georgiev’s wife at the time, Rossitza Dontcheva Georgiev, had applied for a passport and visa to travel in 1987, and when she went to the police station to collect the documents, government officials were waiting for her. Rossitza was interrogated, and after it was ascertained that she could speak English, she was told that she was to travel to the United States to find and retrieve her husband, acting as a spy for the Bulgarian government for the forty days she was allotted for the task. Ultimately, Rossitza would travel to the United States and remain with her husband.

Physical residency in the United States did not mean that Lubomir Georgiev was safe against reprisal from the Bulgarian government for his defection. Georgiev had been scheduled for a five-concert tour in Japan during the Summer of 1987. As his status as a political refugee in the United States was not official yet, Georgiev technically was a Bulgarian citizen still, and the country would not issue the required permissions for him to travel to Japan, thus sabotaging his performance tour. Eventually, the Japanese Embassy did intervene, and the Bulgarian government did issue the permission, but it was issued five days after the tour began, making it impossible for Georgiev to participate in the tour.  

Although performing was impossible for Georgiev immediately after defecting to the United States, he was able to indulge in his original purpose. Once at Indiana University, Georgiev thrived, studying not only with János Starker, but with such great musicians as Fritz Magg and David Baker. He graduated with his Artist’s Diploma in Cello Performance from the Indiana University School of Music in 1988. This was an important year, as Georgiev officially was granted asylum on November 22, 1988. With protection granted by the United States, Georgiev was able to find employment, serving as principal cellist of the Richmond Symphony in Indiana from 1989 to 1993.

Georgiev with student

After settling in the United States, Georgiev became known as a teacher and performer. Georgiev was hired as an Assistant Professor of Cello at Florida State University (FSU) and began serving as principal cellist for the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra in 1993. He made multiple appearances as a soloist, in addition to performing in chamber ensembles. In 1995, after the fall of Communism in Bulgaria, Georgiev even returned to his birthplace of Varna on a tour to perform and teach a new generation of Eastern European cellists.  

The UNC Greensboro Cello Music Collection of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives is excited to provide exposure and access to Lubomir Georgiev’s collection, bringing attention to the public the story of his life and providing support to researchers and performers. Once the manuscript compositions are processed and cataloged, there are plans to provide free digital access to Georgiev’s compositions and arrangements (copyright permitting), permitting researchers worldwide to explore Georgiev as a composer and allowing performers the opportunity to bring his music to life. Additionally, the collection includes materials that can be incorporated into class instruction, including the paperwork relating to his petition for asylum in the United States. Lubomir Georgiev is in good company among the other cellists represented in the UNC Greensboro Cello Music Collection, masters of their instrument and many of whom were political refugees.

Consisting of the archival collections of sixteen cellists, the UNC Greensboro Cello Music Collection constitutes the largest single holding of cello music-related material worldwide.

Ennio Bolognini Joins the Cellists Represented in the UNCG Cello Music Collection

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections &University Archives is pleased to announce the addition of Ennio Bolognini’s personal papers, photographs, and artifacts to the UNCG Cello Music Collection. Ennio Bolognini (1893-1979) was an Argentine-born cellist, composer, conductor, pilot, and professional boxer. Referred by Pablo Casals as “The greatest cello talent I ever heard in my life,” it is rumored that even Emmanuel Feuermann stated, “For my money, the world’s greatest cellist is not Casals, Piatigorsky, or myself, but Bolognini!”

Bolognini began studying cello performance with his father (Egidio Bolognini), completing his education with José García at the St. Celicia Conservatory in Buenos Aires. He debuted as a soloist at twelve years of age, winning the Luigi Rovatti cello (presently in thecollection of the Smithsonian) at an Ibero-American International competition. Bolognini was awarded an honorary doctorate of music by the University of Buenos Aires in 1921, and spent two years conducting in Chile before immigrating to the United States.

Caricature of Sammy Davis Jr. on manuscript music in the hand of
Ennio Bolognini

Bolognini moved to the States to serve as the sparring partner boxer Luis Firpo to prepare Firpo for his match with Jack Dempsey. Bolognini had been welter-weight champion of South America in the past. In addition to music and boxing, he was also an avid pilot, co-founding the Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary of the United State Air Force during World War II. Bolognini was responsible for training cadets to fly B-29 bombers. He was known to be extremely proud of his talent in flying, honored to be a member of the elite “Quiet Birdmen’ Pilots” organization.

Bolognini served as principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1929 to 1930, when a dispute made him quit the orchestra. After leaving, he enjoyed a successful career as a soloist in the night club scene, as well as performing in major music festivals such as Ravinia. In 1951, he moved to Las Vegas, performing in casino orchestras and founding the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra in 1963. Within the course of his career, Bolognini composed seven pieces for cello, six of which are dedicated to noted cellist Christine Walewska, one of his students.   

The Ennio Bolognini Collection is a small, but growing collection donated by his wife, Dorothy Barber Bolognini. Presently, it contains a few manuscript musical sketches, caricatures drawn by Bolognini, articles, concert programs, and photographs relating to his life and career. Ennio Bolognini is the thirteenth cellist represented within the UNCG Cello Music Collection. Consisting of the archival music collections of Luigi Silva, Elizabeth Cowling, Rudolf Matz, Maurice Eisenberg, János Scholz, Fritz Magg, Bernard Greenhouse, Laszlo Varga, Lev Aronson, Lubomir Georgiev, Marion Davies, and Douglas Moore, the Cello Music Collection at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro constitutes the largest single holding of cello music-related material worldwide.  

A Testimony through Music: The Compositions of Lev Aronson. Cellist, Teacher, and Holocaust Survivor

Lev Aronson is remembered as a distinguished cellist, teacher, and survivor of the Holocaust. Born February 7, 1912 in München Gladbach (now Mönchengladbach), Germany, the story of Aronson’s life and music serve as inspiration for countless students and fans, well beyond his death in 1988. With his family forced from their home in Latvia during World War I and losing five years of his life to the camps of World War II, Aronson endured one of the darkest times in human history, surviving these events to bring beauty to the world through music.

The exhibit “A Testimony through Music: The Compositions of Lev Aronson” conveys the story of his Aronson’s life through his sheet music, the collection of which is available for research at the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives at Jackson Library. This exhibit features several musical manuscripts, composed by Aronson, relating to his experiences in the Nazi and Russian labor camps. Included among these pieces are vocal works in Yiddish focused upon his experiences during the war, as well as two concert pieces for cello composed by Aronson and signed with his inmate identification number. The exhibit will be available for viewing from October 3^rd, 2016 to March 31^st, 2017.

War & Peace Imagined Celebrates Lev Aronson, featuring Internationally-Renowned Cellist, Lynn Harrell

University Libraries UNCG and the UNCG College of Visual and Performing Arts is collaborating to make December 2016 a spectacular month for music fans. As many of you may know, the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives at #UNCG is home to the largest single holding of cello music-related materials in the world, and every few years, we celebrate one of the musicians represented in our collection. This year’s campus theme is "War & Peace Imagined," an exploration of war and peace through the arts and humanities. Therefore, it is most fitting that we celebrate the musical legacy of cellist, Lev Aronson.

Lev Aronson is remembered as a distinguished cellist, teacher, and survivor of the Holocaust. With his family forced from their home in Latvia during World War I and losing five years of his life to the camps of World War II, Aronson endured one of the darkest times in human history, surviving these events to bring beauty to the world through music. Among Aronson’s many students is internationally acclaimed cellist, Lynn Harrell.

We are sponsoring a concert (Dec. 2, 2016) and recital (Dec. 3, 2016) featuring Lynn Harrell. The information is available below and tickets are on sale now:

Ernest Bloch Hebraic Rhapsody for Solo Cello and Orchestra

https://vpa.uncg.edu/war-and-peace-imagined/events?e=90

When: Friday, December 2, 2016, 7:30 pm

Where: UNCG Auditorium

Tickets: $10 adult/ $5 student: http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?pid=8319485

The UNCG Symphony Orchestra will accompany the world-renowned cellist as he performs Ernest Bloch's passionate and exotic work, Schelomo: Rhapsody for Solo Cello and Orchestra. Crafted in faith and misery, Schelomo premiered 100 years ago as part of Bloch's Jewish Cycle. This will be one piece in a larger concert from the UNCG Symphony.

UPAS: Lynn Harrell, recital

https://vpa.uncg.edu/war-and-peace-imagined/events?e=91

When: Saturday, December 3, 2016, 8:00 pm

Where: Recital Hall

Tickets: $30 adult/$25 student/ $25 senior

http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?pid=8300999

Lynn Harrell will complete his UNCG residency with this recital of virtuosic works including those of Lev Aronson, Mr. Harrell's cello teacher. Lev Aronson, himself a cellist and composer, was interned in both a Nazi Concentration Camp and a Russian Labor Camp. He eventually made it to the United States where he became the Principal Cellist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and a beloved teacher of many successful cellists.

Program:

Sonata in G major (edited by Lev Aronson), Henry Eccles

Cello Sonata in C major, op. 119, Sergei Prokofiev

Cello Sonata, Claude Debussy

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Introduction, Theme and Variations, op. 82, no. 2 (arr. Gregor Piatigorsky), Franz Schubert

Cello Suite no. 3 in C major, BWV 1009, J.S. Bach 

Sheet music. Recordings. Videos. Personal papers. All stored neatly in rows of boxes — like the warehouse of artifacts at the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.”"

Among the top "5 things you didn't know are in Greensboro" the News and Record  included the UNCG Cello Music Collection. You check out the article here:

5 things you didn't know are in Greensboro - Greensboro News & Record: News

Douglas B. Moore Joins the Cellists Represented in the UNCG Cello Music Collection

The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives is pleased to announce the donation of the collection of Douglas B. Moore to the UNCG Cello Music Collection. Douglas Moore was Professor of Music at Williams College from 1970 to 2007, and cellist with the Williams Chamber Players and the Williams Trio.  His Bachelor of Music degree in cello is from Indiana University, where he studied with Fritz Magg and János Starker, and his Masters and DMA degrees are from The Catholic University of America in Washington DC.

Moore has performed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and at the Great Music West (Utah), Saratoga Baroque, Music Mountain, and Newport music festivals. He has been an artist/faculty member at the Manchester (VT) Music Festival (1998-2008) and Kansas City Cello Clinic. He has been principal cellist with the Great Music West Festival Orchestra in Utah, the Albany (NY) Symphony, Berkshire Symphony at Williams College and the Lake George Opera Festival orchestra. From 1991 the 1995 he was a member of the Saratoga Chamber Players, based in Saratoga Springs NY. He has also conducted cello orchestras at cello congresses, cello camps and universities, and given frequent master classes.

In 1976, Moore played the world premiere performance of the Cello Sonata, Op. 78 by Arthur Foote. His edition of the complete music for cello and piano by Foote was published in 1982 by A-R Editions on the Recent Researches in American Music series. The first modern-day performance of Foote's Cello Concerto took place in 1981 with Douglas Moore as soloist. Since then, he has performed the work with orchestras in Connecticut, Minnesota, Virginia, Massachusetts, Vermont, Illinois and Iowa. He has recorded music by Foote, Farwell, Cadman, Arensky, Rachmaninov, and Kechley on the Musical Heritage Society, Grand Prix and Liscio labels.

Moore has published over forty original arrangements through his publishing company, PlayMooreCello, including Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever and Rossini’s Barber of Seville Overture. His arrangements have been recorded by Yo-Yo Ma, the Saito Cello Ensemble of Japan and the Boston Cello Quartet. Additionally, Moore has published nearly 3 dozen modern editions of late 18th and early 19th century duos for violin and cello, most of which have never appeared since their first publication.

The Cello Music Collection of the Special Collections and University Archives contains sheet music (manuscript and published), monographs, serials, audio-video recordings, personal papers, and artifacts associated with cellists noted for their distinguished contributions in the areas of composition, performance, pedagogy, and research. Douglas Moore is the twelfth cellist represented within the UNCG Cello Music Collection. Consisting of the archival music collections of Luigi Silva, Elizabeth Cowling, Rudolf Matz, Maurice Eisenberg, János Scholz, Fritz Magg, Bernard Greenhouse, Laszlo Varga, Lev Aronson, Lubomir Georgiev, Marion Davies, and Douglas Moore, the Cello Music Collection at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro constitutes the largest single holding of cello music-related material worldwide. 

Remembering the Legacy of Laszlo Varga

Bela Bartok's Sonata for Solo Violin arranged for
5 Stringed Cello by Laszlo Varga

Renowned cellist Laszlo Varga passed away December 11, 2014. Born in 1924, Varga studied at the Franz Liszt Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. After escaping the forced labor camps in Hungary during World War II, Varga immigrated to the United States, serving eleven years as the principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic. He was a featured performer and respected teacher at the Aspen, Chautauqua and Shreveport music festivals, among many others. In addition, he conducted major orchestras such as the Budapest Symphony and the San Leandro Symphony. For twenty-five years, Varga served as both director and conductor of the San Francisco State University Symphony. Among his many awards and recognitions, Varga was presented the distinguished title of "Chevalier du Violoncelle" by Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center at Indiana University in 1991.

Laszlo Varga donated his musical score collection to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives in 2005. This impressive collection contains over fifty transcriptions for solo cello and cello ensemble, including his solo cello transcriptions of the Bach D minor and E major violin partitas and his arrangement of Strauss’ “Don Quixote, Op. 35” for cello, viola, violin, clarinet, horn, and piano. UNCG celebrated this pioneering artist’s legacy in 2007 by hosting the Laszlo Varga Cello Music Celebration. Varga is the eighth cellist represented in the UNCG Cello Music Collection, the largest single holding of cello music related literature in the world.

University Libraries is honoring the memory of this world-class performer, teacher, and arranger of cello music through the digitization of portions of his collection. The Laszlo Varga Digital Collection contains many of Varga’s unpublished manuscript arrangements, promoting his legacy to cellists worldwide.

Click to view Laszlo Varga obituary in the New York Times.

Laszlo Varga at the UNCG Cello Music Celebration held in his honor,
2007

Happy Birthday Cello Music Collection!

October 23 marks the fifty-first birthday of the UNCG Cello Music Collection, the single largest holding of cello music-related materials in the world.  This unique archive, presently representing the collections of eleven cellists, was made possible by the generosity of countless donors, but founded through the support of Friends of the Libraries.

UNCG Cello Music Collection

In 1963, when Elizabeth Cowling learned that the estate of Luigi Silva was prepared to sell his library, she immediately contacted University Librarian, Charles Adams. The library is committed in its support of faculty research, but there were several risks to consider in pursuing the Silva Collection. First, the school’s cello program was not particularly strong, as the school was ordered to become coeducational only that same year, and the cello was historically a masculine instrument. Additionally, the Library to that date only held one collection of archival music (the North Carolina Holograph Collection), and the Silva collection was fifteen times the size of that one. There was no music library nor was there a music librarian on campus either. However, the greatest obstacle was the quoted price of $3000 ($1000 for Silva’s manuscripts and $2000 for the remainder of the collection), an intimidating sum for 1963.    

Charles Adams conveyed Elizabeth Cowling’s vision of a centralized repository for cello music research founded upon the renowned library of Luigi Silva before the Friends of the Library (there was only one library at this time). In terms of an investment, it was a gamble, but the Friends of the Library were persuaded by Cowling’s passion and made the purchase. Cowling and Adams brought the collection back from New York in October of 1963. 

 

Contract for the sale of Silva's
Collection in Cowling's hand, Oct. 23, 1963

The collection was dedicated on April 5, 1964 with a recital featuring several of Silva’s arrangements. Many donations were made in honor of Luigi Silva celebrating this event. Margery Enix, a student of Silva, donated draft notes of Vademecum, Silva’s treatise on the thumb position. Franco Colombo, head of the New York branch of the music publisher Ricordi donated several of Silva’s manuscript drafts, including the 24 Caprices of Paganini transcribed for cello by Silva, Boccherini’s Concerto in D Major No.2, and the cello and piano transcription of Boccherini’s Concerto in D Major, Op. 34. Charles Wendt, a student of Silva's, donated a manuscript of the Paganini Capriccio XIII transcribed for cello and piano and purchased Robert Crome's The Compleat Tutor for the Violoncello (ca. 1765) for the collection. Cellist Rudolf Matz provided the gift of 15 volumes from his work First Years of the Violoncello. Violoncello Society of America president JanosScholz (who was awarded an honorary doctorate from UNCG in 1981) donated a manuscript collection of anonymous 18th century cello sonatas and transcribed opera arias.

The purchasing of the Luigi Silva Collection by the Friends of the Libraries has attracted many researchers and performers to the Libraries (even Leonard Rose in 1980), but it also encouraged other cellists to donate their collections. Ten cello music collections have been donated to the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections & University Archives since that time, inspired by the purchasing of the Luigi Silva Cello Music Collection. Over the past five decades, the centralized repository for cello music research envisioned by Elizabeth Cowling has been realized and made possible by UNCG Friends of the Libraries.

Program from Dedication of the Silva Collection

In celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Friends of the Libraries’ dedication of the Silva Collection, we have digitized Silva’s manuscripts of Vademecum and La Tecnica Violoncellista so that musicologists and performers worldwide can benefit from this legacy.

Save the Date(s): October is Archives Month!

October is North Carolina Archives Month, an annual observance of the agencies and people responsible for maintaining and making available the archival and historical records of our nation, state, communities and people. Throughout October 2014, the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) will host numerous exhibits and events aimed at promoting awareness of the importance of our profession to our state’s citizenry and public leaders.

Field Day at State Normal, 1914

Beginning October 1, two exhibits focused on the 2014 North Carolina Archives Month theme of “North Carolina at Play: Health and Leisure in Our State” will be displayed in Jackson Library. The first will be housed at the College Avenue entrance and will highlight resources held by SCUA that tell the history of health and leisure in North Carolina. The second exhibit, which will be next to the library's reference desk on the first floor of Jackson Library, will focus on the history of health and leisure at UNCG since its founding as the State Normal and Industrial School in 1891. These exhibits will be available for viewing at any time the building is open.

The Hodges Reading Room in Jackson Library will host a lecture by Dr. Joy Kasson of UNC Chapel Hill on Lois Lenski and her career as a documentary writer for children on October 8 at 4pm. Much of Kasson's research was done using the Lois Lenski Papers in SCUA. You can read more about the talk here: http://uncgfol.blogspot.com/2014/09/getting-books-from-life-lois-lenski.html. 

On October 9 at 10:30am in the Hodges Reading Room, SCUA staff will present a talk on "Interpreting College Scrapbooks as a Microcosm of Institutional and Social History." Archivists Kathelene Smith and Jennifer Motzsko will chart the evolution of the scrapbook, from its origins as a commonplace book to the commercially produced album found on 19th century college campuses. They will also explore the similarities, differences, and overall themes shared by scrapbooks held in SCUA as well as their potential use by scholars, and the importance of preserving them for future generations of historians. A number of scrapbooks related to health and leisure will be displayed.

Stacey Krim, curator for SCUA's Cello Music Collection, will present a biographic overview of Lev Aronson, whose manuscript and annotated music is among the most recent additions to the collection. Lev Aronson (1912-1988) was an established performer and teacher of the violoncello and Jewish survivor of the German and Russian labor camps of World War II. After immigrating to the United States in 1948, Aronson continued his career as principal cellist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in addition to holding teaching positions at Baylor University and Southern Methodist University. In addition to the presentation, original works composed by Aronson around the time of his imprisonment during WWII will be displayed.

Students in the South Spencer Gymnasium, 1907

SCUA will also offer two walking tours of campus focused specifically on the history of health and physical education on campus. Tours will be offered at 2pm on Wednesday, October 15 and Wednesday, October 22. Each walking tour will take approximately 45 minutes and will be limited to 15 participants. The tours are open to any UNCG student, faculty, staff, or alumni. To reserve a place on the walking tour, please email SCUA@uncg.edu and indicate which tour you would like to take part in. Specifics on meeting location will be emailed to participants prior to the tour date.

Throughout October, SCUA staff will share additional information and materials via various social media outlets. Follow University Archives on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/UNCGArchives) or Tumblr (http://UNCGArchives.tumblr.com) for daily features on the topic of health and leisure in North Carolina, links to web exhibits featuring SCUA materials, and details on a temporary "pop up exhibit" that will take place on campus at a time and location to be determined. Additionally, the Spartan Stories blog (http://uncghistory.blogspot.com) will publish weekly posts highlighting the history of health and leisure activities at UNCG.

***** FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS *****

Wednesday, October 8, 4pm, Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library
"Getting Books from Life: Lois Lenski, Documentary Writer for Children" lecture

Thursday, October 9, 10:30am, Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library
"Interpreting College Scrapbooks as a Microcosm of Institutional and Social History" lecture

Wednesday, October 15, 2pm
Campus Walking Tour (RSVP to SCUA@uncg.edu, limited to 15 participants)

Wednesday, October 22, 2pm
Campus Walking Tour (RSVP to SCUA@uncg.edu, limited to 15 participants)

Tuesday, October 28, 2pm, Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library
"A Biographic Overview of Lev Aronson" lecture

Ongoing, October 1 through October 31, 1st floor, Jackson Library
Exhibits focused on "North Carolina at Play: Health and Leisure in Our State"

A Few Items of Romance from the Cello Music Collections

The Cello Music Collections at UNCG are filled with classical masterpieces of music that can woo the most frigid heart, but we also preserve manuscripts and artifacts equally stirring, though of a more personal nature. On this Valentine's Day, we would like to share with you a few of the more romantic items from the Janos Scholz Cello Music and Personal Papers Collection.

Above is the diary of Therese Russ (picture on the left from the front of the diary). Written on pink paper, the journal covers the daily accounts of her life in the Austro-Hungarian Empire before her marriage. The lock of her hair was given to her husband, as was the common courting practice at that time. The journal dates from some time in the late 1800s and was to be buried with Therese, but it was lost in the family papers. As the family story goes, the maternal line of Janos Scholz' lineage was of inspiration to many composers of their day, including Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, and Karl Goldmark.

In processing archival collections, we read a lot of mail, and love letters always rouse the imagination (especially since we only see one side of the conversation). To the left we have two letters, the first letter, undated but signed by "Alice" begins, "Your departure from this section of the country left a great void - I can't find words to describe it."  The second is an excerpt of a text reminiscent of Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time." The first part of the Scholz letter reads, "Gather the roses bravely. God has given them to you so as to delight your heart and mind..." We do not know who the admirer is, as the letter is unsigned, but included within the envelope is a pressed rose.

Of course, this being an archival music collection, we must leave you with this very special Valentine message. Composed for voice and piano, the title of this short piece is "A Valentine," and it appears to be written in the hand of Janos Scholz. The song verse is as follows:

"Little Love sat sobbing, sighing, 

Bitter winds about him flying.

'I have come a weary way,

Not a rose bud blooms this day'!

Good old Winter heard him crying,

Smoothed his curls and smiled replying:

'Gather up my snowflake showers.

They are ghosts of true love's flowers.'"

If you would like to find out more about UNCG's Cello Music Collection, visit our website or email us. Happy Valentine's Day!

The Carter-Greenhouse Legacy: Reinventing Cello Music in the Twentieth Century

Revolutionary composer, Elliott Carter (1908-2012), passed away November 5th, ending an award-winning career as an icon of modern orchestral music. As a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning composer, his contribution to the world of American musical composition is undeniable, but cello music shares a special relationship in the Carter legacy.

Elliott Carter’s debut into the realm of modern American composition initiated with “Sonata for Violoncello and Piano” (1948), inspired by and written for cellist, Bernard Greenhouse. At the time of the score’s conception, the standard of cello music was based upon (and still is to some extent) the celebrities of the Classical Era: Bach, Beethoven, and Haydn— just to name a few. Carter, influenced by the avant-garde rhythms of jazz, imagined cello music with a different attitude, but he would need to find a singular musician to give life to his music. Carter found such a musician in Bernard Greenhouse (1916-2011). 

Elliott Carter and Bernard Greenhouse’s collaboration emerged from the music scene of 1940s New York. Greenhouse, a young and rising cellist, was introduced to Carter and discussed his interest in performing an original composition for cello by Carter. Having attended performances by Greenhouse, Carter was familiar with the cellist’s talent and style. Carter composed “Sonata for ‘Cello and Piano” for Greenhouse, and over a four month period, they collaborated in arranging for the piece’s first performance. 

The composition proved demanding technically and physically, but Carter’s trust in Greenhouse’s musical talent was well-founded. By 1951, Greenhouse was performing the work in concert, and the “Sonata” established Elliott Carter’s reputation as a modern composer while introducing Bernard Greenhouse as a world-class cellist. 

Elliott Carter’s contribution to the cello music world is preserved in the Bernard Greenhouse Cello Music Collection, which holds an original manuscript of “Sonata for Violoncello and Piano” in the hand of Carter with annotations by Bernard Greenhouse. The Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives is proud to keep the Carter-Greenhouse Legacy alive by providing research access to the piece as well as preserving the score for future generations of musicians.


For more information
Bernard Greenhouse Digital Collection
Cello Music Collections at University Libraries, UNCG

Bernard Greenhouse, acclaimed cellist and founder of Beaux Arts Trio, dies at 95

Bernard Greenhouse, acclaimed cellist and founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio, passed away at his home in Wellfleet, Connecticut on Friday morning. UNCG has the honor of housing his expansive cello music collection in the Cello Music Collection of Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives. On a more personal note, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Greenhouse during the Cello Music Celebration for Luigi Silva in March 2004 as well as the Greenhouse Celebration of 2005 that not only marked his 90th year but also honored his donation of his personal library. On both occasions he displayed his noted warmth and good humor.

Online remembrances:
NPR
New York Times
CelloBello

The photo above is of Dr. William Finley and Mr. Greenhouse taken during the Silva Celebration in 2004.

-Carolyn Shankle

The Elizabeth Cowling Celebration

The Elizabeth Cowling Cello Celebration March 24-26, 2011

UNCG School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Greensboro, NC

Honoring cellist and scholar Elizabeth Cowling

Cello choir showcases and master class performance opportunities available to registered participants.

Direct all inquiries to Alexander Ezerman

aezerman@gmail.com / 336 334 5518

Event Website
Elizabeth Cowling Collection
Cello Music Collection

Celebrating the Cello Music Collection: The Greenhouse Legacy

Among the most distinguished cellists of the 20th and early 21st centuries, Bernard Greenhouse, now in his 95th year, continues to teach at his home on Cape Cod and to inspire music lovers the world over, largely through his many recordings with the Beaux Arts Trio. As the founding cellist of this legendary trio, Greenhouse joined forces in 1955 with pianist Menahem Pressler and violinist Daniel Guilet (later followed by Isidore Cohen) to perform and record the entire standard piano trio repertoire before retiring from the group in 1987. However, as Greenhouse is ever quick to point out, his career on the international chamber music stage represents only one dimension of a richly varied musical life. This exhibit of materials from his personal library, now part of UNCG’s monumental Cello Music Collection, throws welcome light on the range of Greenhouse’s activities—as a virtuoso cello soloist, as a student of Casals, as a collaborator with composer Elliott Carter, and as the long-time cellist of New York’s Bach Aria Group.

- Mac Nelson

Exhibit dates : January 24 - February 3, 2011