Librarians: In their own words

I have done music library work in one capacity or another as far back as junior high school, while also playing in every orchestra since. During my formal education I augmented my degree programs (undergraduate in music education and masters in violin performance), with extra emphasis in music history and theory, applied lessons on other than my primary instrument, and numerous related disciplines to broaden my base of musical understanding (there is no Orchestra Librarian School!). By the time I was out of college and working in my first professional job as section violinist and assistant librarian in the former Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, the dual role of player and librarian was both natural and normal for me. In every job after that, I’ve combined the two areas in some way, either as a full-time player who also marked parts, did stage duty, and kept performance history records, or as a full-time librarian who also played part-time in regular classics and pops concerts, full opera and ballet productions, recordings and international tours. Regardless of the ratio of time spent in either role, the combined experience has given me a deep understanding of both the professional librarian’s and player’s lives, jobs, and psyches…because I’m both.

Such a background is not so different from many other orchestra librarians, but I bring it up as a way to highlight some things players may not realize about their musician colleagues who live in that cave down the hall from backstage. Our musical training was intense and grueling, as it is for any other professional musician, with different or added specialties than those who focused on performance. We gravitated to musical crafts we felt compelled to practice and in which we excelled, as does every musician. In our professional lives, by establishing strong working relationships with publishers and editors, participating in a large world-wide network of other orchestra/opera/band librarians (the Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association) to share information such as errata lists and the latest on critical editions, urging administrators to provide program information early so parts can be ready for the players several weeks before rehearsals…we devote ourselves to our #1 priority of taking care of the performers’ musical needs. That goal is manifested in striving to prepare performance materials at the highest possible standard.

Sometimes this devotion may not always be obvious, like when we are running around during concerts with little time to provide a practice part (at that moment), or if the music is not ready to be given out when someone asks for it (because it still needs corrections or cuts), or when having to tell a player that we can’t do much with the crummy parts that showed up on Mr. Singer Comedian’s bus this morning for tonight’s concert. But the daily, detailed, behind-the-scenes efforts on behalf of the players, if you came to observe, would make your head spin. It routinely makes ours spin!

The truth is, the work in an orchestra library is never completely finished – there are parts that could always be better and errors that still crop up in rehearsal despite having spent 250 hours or more preparing, say, a Mahler symphony. (Yes, it really can take 4 or 5 hours PER PART to correct, mark and put in measure numbers…) But considering that each season we handle tens of thousands of pages of music with millions of notes, I am proud of our very high batting average. And I am thrilled that we have such a special opportunity to discuss all these things on this forum!