Library receives Recordings at Risk grant to preserve Cabrillo Festival tapes

Student News

UC Santa Cruz is the recipient of a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The award is designed to support the preservation of rare and unique audio content of high scholarly value.
The University Library’s Special Collections will use the grant to digitize 69 open-reel audiotapes of live music performances from the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.These recordings were originally made by KPFA, a Berkeley community radio station. They were later transferred to the Bay Area music non-profit organization, Other Minds, which last year donated its archives to UC Santa Cruz.
The recordings will be included in the Library catalog and made available on demand to patrons both on-site and via remote access. They provide insights into the early creative processes of composers and artists who are recognized influencers of American new music and will be of great interest to musicologists, historians, composers, programmers, students, and others interested in experimental and avant-garde music.
“The CLIR grant officially starts this November, and wraps up in April of 2018,” said archivist Kate Dundon of Special Collections & Archives.
”For this grant, we based our selections on (Other Minds Executive Director) Charles Amirkhanian's curatorial priorities. These particular recordings include several world premiers of European composers.”

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