December 2004
* In Memoriam, Yale Fineman
* New Video Delivery System at MSPAL
* Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive Comes to UM Libraries
* John Wiggins and Maxwell Brown, IPAM Staff, Perform Recital
* Another Japanese Scholar Visits SCPA
* Recent Acquisitions
In Memoriam, Yale Fineman
by Bruce Wilson
Yale Fineman (1951 – 2004) passed away December 2, his fifty-third birthday, following a courageous battle with lung cancer. He was appointed Music Librarian and Head of Reference and Circulation in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library at the University of Maryland in August 2002, and had been Acting Head of that Library since July 2004.
After earning a Master of Arts in Musicology from Tufts University (1994) and Master of Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh (1995), Yale started his library career in Pittsburgh. He worked first briefly at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and then, from 1996 to 1998, in the Music and Art Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He left to assume the post of User Services Librarian in the Duke University Music Library in 1998.
Yale is known widely among his colleagues in the Music Library Association as the creator of DW3Classical Music Resources, while he was at Duke University. He wrote about that project in the Music Library Association Notes (March 2002) under the title "The Economics of Information: DW3 and the Case for Creating a Music Megasite." Professionally active and articulate through publications and presentations on various aspects of digital information dissemination and bibliography, Yale's most recent article on "Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Music" appeared in the June 2004 issue of Notes.
Those who knew Yale well knew him also as a brilliant classical guitarist with an abiding love for Spanish music, which he had studied, practiced, and performed for thirty-five years. He was a noted expert on the music of Isaac Albeniz. His repertoire spanned five centuries of western music, ranging from Renaissance polyphony to jazz-influenced, Latin-American tunes. Upon learning of Yale's cancer diagnosis earlier in 2004, friends and colleagues in MLA's Southeast and Atlantic Chapters paid tribute to him by commissioning John Mayrose, a Duke friend and colleague and recent recipient of ASCAP's Morton Gould Young Composer Award, to compose a composition for classical guitar in his honor. They presented Cascada to Yale in June 2004.
Yale will be remembered by his colleagues as a vivid presence, dedicated in equal measure to librarianship, service, scholarship, and musicianship—and as a loyal friend who touched numerous lives across the country. He is survived by his wife Carol, two brothers, and his mother. Notes of condolence and remembrance can be sent to the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, in care of Debra Reed, 2511 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, College Park MD 20742. Contributions to the Yale Fineman Memorial Fund, made out to the University of Maryland College Park Foundation (memo: Yale Fineman Memorial Fund) can be mailed to the Performing Arts Library address above.
Bonnie Jo Dopp, Curator of Special Collections in Performing Arts, has agreed to assume music librarian duties for the interim. Alice LaSota, Head of Music/AV Cataloging, will serve as Acting Head for MSPAL until the search for the new head is complete.
Photograph of Yale by Julie Arnold
New Video Delivery System at MSPAL
MSPAL launched a new remote video delivery system in October. This system, integrated into the existing audio system, enables users to view VHS tapes or DVDs at any study carrel in the library using a remote control interface that can control both audio and video media. These new capabilities further complete the range of services offered for performing arts study.
Look for new video holdings developing at MSPAL over next semester. The new WAPAVA collection is described below.
Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive Comes to UM Libraries
The Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive (WAPAVA) has signed an unprecedented co-location agreement with the Washingtoniana Division of the District of Columbia Public Library and the University of Maryland Libraries that will bring its collection of over 354 (and growing) recorded live theatre productions to Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library (MSPAL) at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Under terms of the agreement, MSPAL becomes primary caretaker for the archive. Materials from WAPAVA will be available for use next semester.
One of only two such collections in the country devoted to providing public access to recorded theatre performances, WAPAVA will keep a duplicate set of viewing copies available at the Washingtoniana Division of the District of Columbia Public Library, where the archive was previously housed. Charles B. Lowry, Dean of Libraries at the University, says, "I am very pleased that the District of Columbia Public Library and the University of Maryland Libraries, together with the Actors' Equity Association, have found a way to co-locate WAPAVA. Having these tapes here will add a new dimension to the study of theatre at the University of Maryland, and will be a great benefit to the Washington theatre scene."
Actors' Equity has authorized only one other library in the country, the New York Public Library, to make recorded live theatre productions available from archived collections. With MSPAL's newly installed remote video delivery system, the viewing experience at this four year-old facility is second to none.
The strongest feature of establishing MSPAL as the primary archival location for WAPAVA is the increased accessibility to the recorded performances for an academic program training future theatre professionals. As the University of Maryland continues to grow as a center for theatre scholarship, the videos will be assigned as class work, providing a new and exciting learning tool for students. Daniel MacLean Wagner, Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre, says, "We greatly look forward to having this valuable resource in residence at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, as it will immeasurably enrich and expand our capability to bring the vitality, depth, and breadth of Washington theater to our students."
An immediate result of the co-location will be an increase in the number of visits to the archive. Stephen Jarrett, WAPAVA's chairman of the board, estimates that the number of visitors to the archive will increase from the previous 200 to 300 per year to nearly 1,500 per year. "Obviously, the more people we serve, the greater the value of WAPAVA is to the community." Serving more people, and bringing new people to the library, will raise the profiles of the collection and the library.
Bruce D. Wilson, recently retired head of MSPAL, estimates that the work of creating viewing copies of the original 354 tapes should be finished by September, 2005, in time for the semester. Dr. Wilson says, "We are very excited for the tapes to be coming here, making it possible for our students to have direct access to the legacy of this great theatre area. There are some things one just has to experience, and these tapes will bring today's theatre students as close as possible to performances of the past."
Washington, DC, is now known worldwide as a leading theatre center in the nation. It is second only to New York in its number of professional theater companies. The mission of WAPAVA is to build a professional videotape archive of theatre, dance and other live performance as an educational and artistic resource not only for the Washington area, but internationally, as well. WAPAVA's archive of performances runs the entire gamut of local professional production from the Kennedy Center, the Shakespeare Theatre and Arena Stage to fringe groups and, sometimes, more adventurous comapnies.
For information about the WAPAVA collection, contact Vincent J. Novara at 301-405-9220, or at vnovara@umd.edu. For further information about how you can support the Library work with the WAPAVA collection, contact Jan Olsen, Assoiate Dean for Director of External Relations, UM Libraries, at 314-1470, or jolsen1@umd.edu.
Bruce Wilson and Stephen Jarrett contributed to this story.
John Wiggins and Maxwell Brown, IPAM Staff, Perform Recital
John Wiggins, tenor, and Maxwell Brown, piano, both of the IPAM staff, performed a selection of songs from the Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf oeuvre at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church of Bethesda in October. The purpose of the performance was simply creating an opportunity to learn and perform these great songs. This well-attended recital is the only performance John and Max have scheduled for this year. They are discussing another program for a 2005 recital.
John holds a BM from Florida State University and has completed the coursework towards a MM in Musicology at UM. He currently studies voice with his father, Dr. Donald Wiggins. John will be appearing in operas in New York and the DC metro area in the spring.
Max holds a BM the Peabody Conservatory and an MM from the UM School of Music.
Another Japanese Scholar Visits SCPA
Dr. Fumiko Shiraishi, assistant professor of music education from Iwate University in Morioka, Japan, spent a week in September in the Lowens Room for Special Collections researching early American music education history. Special Collections in Performing Arts (SCPA) is the home to the Music Educators National Conference Historical Center and possesses extensive holdings in the specialized field of music education history. Dr. Shiraishi is the second Japanese scholar to visit SCPA this year.
Resident Scholar Professor Makoto Nagashima, has just completed his research at SCPA into the history of music education in the United States. Professor Nagashima, Assistant Professor at Naruto University of Education of Naruto, arrived in March 2004 and devoted much of his research to the Lowell Mason Collection and Luther Whiting Mason Collection.
Recent Acquisitions
To see a list of PAL's most recent acquisitions, and lists from previous months, please visit the New Acquisitions page. This page is updated regularly, so be sure to bookmark it.
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