While Roosevelt University for years has been home to one of the finest music libraries in the state, few have had the opportunity to browse through the historical collection of books, musical scores, records and compact discs because they have been off limits in closed stacks.
A hidden treasure that has been growing since the Great Chicago Fire, the music library was lifted from obscurity when a new, greatly expanded facility with both music and new theatre holdings opened on the 11th floor of the University, 430 S. Michigan Ave., last month.
"Our main goal in opening this new library is to support our music and theatre students in their research and performance," said University Librarian Mary Beth Riedner. "But we do expect some buzz, particularly in the music community, about the sources of information that can be found here."
Expanding in size from 3,000 to 9,000 square feet, the new Performing Arts Library is the first branch library in the Midwest dedicated solely to music and theatre. It also is the only academic research and reference library of its kind to be located in downtown Chicago.
The biggest change with this new library is that open stacks permit those using the library to browse through the collection, said Performing Arts Library Director Greg MacAyeal, who for years has supervised an operation in which only library employees have had access to library stacks.
In all, the Performing Arts Library has 80,000 holdings, including books dating back to the 1870s, piano music from the 19th Century, records from the 1910s, music scores, compact discs, play scripts, trade periodicals and much more.
The rarest items, held in library archives, are books, musical scores, manuscripts and other resources that tell the story of Chicago Musical College, which was founded in 1867 by Florenz Ziegfeld, who built the institution into one of the finest conservatories in the nation.
The library has a substantial collection on world-renowned composer, conductor and pianist Rudolph Ganz, who was president of Chicago Musical College from 1930 to 1954 when the College became part of Roosevelt University. Chicago Musical College and the University's theatre program were merged in 1997, and the program was renamed Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) in 2000.
"We are attracting some of the very best students from all over the United States and all over the world and the quality of their scholarship has been excellent," said James Gandre, dean of CCPA. "With this new library, we expect that our students will be able to do even better research in preparing for their performances and for their papers and classroom presentations."
David Schrader, a renowned harpsichord, organ and fortepiano soloist and a professor of music who has been a faculty member at Roosevelt since 1986, believes the library collection can be particularly valuable to musicians who are researching how others in history have played musical compositions.
"You can find personal copies of music that have interesting markings which show how musicians 50 to 100 years ago played a certain piece," said Schrader, who has used the library with the help of staff in the past to learn, for instance, about the culture of 18th Century German music.
Meanwhile, Cheryl Frazes Hill, associate conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus, believes the new library is a boon for her choral students who are currently preparing to perform Igor Stravinsky's Mass on Nov. 17 at the University's Ganz Hall.
"In the past, students would have had to go to the Web, find what they were looking for and then make a request for the resource or resources from the library staff," said Frazes Hill. "Now they can look at all books about Stravinsky and browse for related topics to the mass we are preparing."
The library's holdings are mainly related to classical music, and include materials on Hans Tischler, a renowned musicologist, and on Karl Jirak, an internationally known composer from Chicago. However, the new library also has more current popular holdings including nearly complete sets of works by Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and the Beatles, as well as jazz and country recordings. And for the first time ever, a theatre collection, with hundreds of play scripts, is available to those doing research and performance.
"As we complete another component of our college, bringing music and theatre together, we now will have vital resources available for our theatre students who will be able to read about their art and have access to important plays that they are working on," said Joel Fink, associate dean of CCPA and director of The Theatre Conservatory.
Fink has donated many books and play scripts to the new library. In addition, the Performing Arts Library also received a $3,000 grant that has been used to purchase a variety of play scripts to help build on new theatre holdings.
Undoubtedly, though, the oldest, historical holdings in the new library can be found in the music collection.
"Over time, libraries face a serious problem with space and their solution too often is to throw things out," said MacAyeal. "That was never done in this library, and as a result, we have a lot of hard-to-find items that we are finally putting on public shelves."
Holdings in the new library can be checked out by all University students, faculty and staff, and by those who belong to the library's I-Share network, which is a consortium of academic libraries in Illinois. The new library also has its own entrance located on the 10th floor of the University's general, Murray Green Library. Collections are available to the public for inspection on Performing Arts Library premises from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
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