LAPL Blog

Alan Westby, Librarian, Art, Music & Recreation Department

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African-American classical composer, Julia Perry

Julia Perry - American Neoclassicist

February 23, 2022

Julia Perry (1924-1979) was an American composer of African descent who had remarkable success in Europe and the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. She made an international impression with her Stabat Mater, composed in 1951, and her Short Piece for Orchestra the following year.

African American History Month, Women's History Month
Portrait of Florence Price taken by G. Niledoff

Happy Birthday, Florence Price - Groundbreaking Composer

April 09, 2021

On Easter Sunday, 1939, contralto Marian Anderson performed one of the most significant concerts in American history.

Safer at Home, Women's History Month, Composers
George Walker on his album George Walker: Great American Concert Music

George Walker: African-American Composer

February 25, 2021

George Walker was one of America's most honored composers, having had his works performed by every major orchestra in the country, and was the first African-American composer to win a Pulitzer Prize for music.

Safer at Home, African American History Month
Film posters from the golden age of Japanese cinema.

Films From the Golden Age of Japanese Cinema

May 20, 2020

Among the many outstanding films available to patrons on Kanopy are several classics from the golden age of Japanese cinema, the 1950s.

Safer at Home, Kanopy, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Portrait of Yun Isang

Eastern and Western Sounds Combined: Korean Composer Yun Isang

May 29, 2018

The library has recently added its first scores by the Korean composer Yun Isang (윤이상 / 尹伊桑) to our collection.

Music, Art, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Korean, Heritage Months, Art Department
a photograph of Maria Callas wearing black looking straight into the camera

A Tribute to Maria Callas: Scenes From Verdi's "La Traviata" & Bellini's "Norma"

February 14, 2018

Callas was not only an esteemed opera diva, she was one of the 20th century's most prominent celebrities, socialites, and an international icon of style and fashion.

Music, Opera, Art Department, Central Library
French duellist and opera singer Julie d'Aubigny (1670–1707). Anonymous print.

Julie d'Aubigny: La Maupin and Early French Opera

June 28, 2017

LGBT Pride Month gives us an opportunity to discover a fascinating character from the early days of French opera.

LGBTQIA, Music, Art Department, Central Library, Heritage Months
The Music of Tôru Takemitsu and Japanese New Wave Cinema

The Music of Tôru Takemitsu and Japanese New Wave Cinema

May 26, 2017

As we observe Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at Los Angeles Public Library, this is a good occasion to look at some of the interesting examples of Japanese cinema available to our patrons, particularly those featuring scores by composer Tôru Takemitsu.

Art Department, Music, Central Library, Heritage Months, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953)

Ruth Crawford Seeger: Musical Ultra-Modernist and Folklorist

March 28, 2017

Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) is widely recognized both as the most important American woman composer of the Twentieth Century, and as a major figure in the study and preservation of American folk music.

Music, Art Department, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Women's History Month
Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin, Treemonisha and American Opera

February 21, 2017

2017 marks the hundredth anniversary of the death, at the age of 49, of Scott Joplin, one of America's first great composers, and the composer of arguably the first important American opera: Treemonisha.

Heritage Months, African American History Month, Art Department, Music, Scott Joplin, Treemonisha, Central Library

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