Librarians: In their own words

Many orchestra librarians have stories of their unusual or unexpected journeys to this career, and I suspect librarians come to their positions through outright determination, complete accidents, and everything in between. I would classify how I have arrived here at the Omaha Symphony, (where I am) beginning my third season as music librarian, as a happy accident.

I’m from northwestern North Dakota, a beautiful place where I feel most at home, but not exactly a launching pad for classical music careers. Even so, growing up I was always attracted to orchestral music, experiencing it almost exclusively through public television and radio. I remember being positively glued to the TV during a broadcast of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6. I was maybe eleven years old, but I wanted to know more and hear more of this music that was powerfully exciting and fresh in spite of its relative age.

In college I was a clarinet performance major. I loved playing clarinet more than anything else and relished every minute of orchestra and band rehearsal, but I never seriously intended to be a professional clarinetist. Fortunately this course also allowed me to take all the music history and theory classes offered and soon I was looking for graduate programs in musicology. I wasn’t quite ready to start another program immediately, however, so I began trolling for a music-related internship. At some point I stumbled across the MOLA website and began keeping tabs on the information and job postings there. I thought this would be an interesting way to be involved with an orchestra and to learn about music from the inside. I wasn’t qualified for a true library position, but perhaps an assistant or internship position would present itself…

My desire for a position was perfectly timed with the New World Symphony’s need for a new Library Fellow. This is one of the only structured training opportunities for orchestra librarians, and I was honored to be invited into the fellowship program. For two years I learned about running a library, and, I would also say, about orchestra management, from the Principal Librarian and the Artistic Operations Department. I also learned a great deal about music itself from the Musician Fellows and the incredible array of conductors and guest artists who work with NWS.

I left New World to return to the academic path, thinking I would never bow another part in a library. How wrong I was. Just a few weeks after moving away from Miami Beach, I received a call from the Omaha Symphony General Manager, asking if I would come to Omaha to interview for the library position. I did, and was offered the job. Now I must confess that I have always felt guilty about winning a job when I wasn’t even looking! But I knew the opportunity was right when it came along, and I have been enjoying working hard to provide the best possible music to the orchestra and information to the staff. I value my time working with the orchestra and know that they appreciate the time and effort my assistant and I put into the quality and availability of the parts, as well as the endless minutia libraries handle.