In Sunday’s (3/21) Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), Andrew Adler writes, “On the outside, they don’t look like much: rows and rows of narrow cardboard boxes, labeled in black and red marker, occupying shelf space at the University of Louisville School of Music. But inside these boxes, captured on 10-inch reels of half-inch-wide magnetic tape, sits the core artistic legacy of the Louisville Orchestra. Made over the course of several decades, the tapes are the edited master recordings behind the orchestra’s celebrated series of First Edition LPs and CDs. And until recently, orchestra officials didn’t know where to find them. It turns out that the tapes, documenting performances of close to 150 works, had been stored in the New York City home of music producer Andrew Kazdin.” Robert Birman, who began as the orchestra’s chief operating officer in 2008, was made aware of the recordings by former League of American Orchestras President and CEO Henry Fogel. “The raw masters have unique value. … When the orchestra commissioned works from dozens of composers in the 1950s and 1960s—and recorded them—the project brought international attention to Louisville.”
Posted March 22, 2010
