“Barbara Hawes, the official New York Philharmonic Archivist for the last 34 years, has said she will retire in August, leaving the orchestra’s rich, 176-year history fully accounted for and tidily indexed, catalogued, and accessible for all the world to see,” writes Susan Elliott in Wednesday’s (4/18) MusicalAmerica.com (subscription required). “She will take the title of Archivist and Historian Emeritus and enroll in a three-year program at New College, University of Oxford, to earn her PhD in musicology. Fittingly, her focus will be Philharmonic founder Ureli Corelli Hill, the first American musician to study and perform abroad. Her accomplishments at the orchestra are vast. She created the first comprehensive performance history database of any symphony orchestra; acquired the score libraries of past music directors; oversaw the complete digitization of all the Archives’ holdings, 1842-70; served as executive producer on any number of historical recording sets; set up a Philharmonic exhibition program; produced podcasts; and much, much more…. Philharmonic President and CEO Deborah Borda [praised] Hawes’s ‘creativity in crafting events and stories around this material,’ and noted that the digital archives Hawes produced had made the orchestra recognized as ‘a leader in the field.’ ”
Posted April 19, 2018
