Stories and Lessons from the World’s Leading Opera, Orchestra Librarians, and Music Archivists by Patrick Lo et al (review)

Reviewed by: Stories and Lessons from the World's Leading Opera, Orchestra Librarians, and Music Archivists by Patrick Lo et al Sarah Mason Stories and Lessons from the World's Leading Opera, Orchestra Librarians, and Music Archivists. By Patrick Lo, Robert Sutherland, Wei-En Hsu, and Russ Girsberger. 2 vols. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing, 2022. Vol. 1, North and South America: xxii, 274 p. ISBN 9781801176538 (hardcover), 99. Vol. 2, Europe and Asia: xxiv, 320 p. ISBN 9781802626605 (hard-cover), 105. Vols. 1–2 also available as ebook (ISBN and price vary). In regard to music performances, librarians are often overlooked in their role in making these events happen. Their contributions, however, are crucial to the success of any performance. As Wei-En Hsu states, "The music libraries are the heart of a concert hall, orchestra, and opera house" (v. 1, p. xiii). In the two-volume set of Stories and Lessons from the World's Leading Opera, Orchestra Librarians, and Music Archivists, Patrick Lo, in collaboration with Robert Sutherland, Hsu, and Russ Girsberger, interviews fifty-three music librarians in opera companies, orchestras, bands, archives, theaters, and academic libraries. Through these interviews, we get a glimpse into their lives and their careers working with many of the best music institutions throughout the world. Lo is currently the director of the International Library & Cultural Management Services Consultancy. He was previously employed as associate professor of library, information, and media science at the University of Tsukuba (Japan). In a wide range of publications, including books and scholarly articles, Lo examines various areas of librarianship, including, most recently, music librarianship: Conversations with the World's Leading Orchestra and Opera Librarians (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and the publication reviewed here. Sutherland recently retired from his position as chief librarian at the Metropolitan Opera, a position in which he served from 1993 to 2020. Hsu is associate professor and repetiteur at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Girsberger is the librarian for the Naval School of Music in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He has published multiple books on the subject of performance librarianship, including The Music Performance Library: A Practical Guide for Orchestra, Band and Opera Librarians (Galesville, MD: Meredith Music Publications, 2011) and A Manual for the Performance Library (Music Library Association Basic Manual Series, no. 6 Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2006). In his previous book, Conversations with the World's Leading Orchestra and Opera Librarians, Lo interviewed End Page 643 performance librarians primarily from orchestras and opera companies. In Stories and Lessons, he expands upon this concept by interviewing a larger set of music librarians in various positions from around the world. The set of interviews is split into volume 1, North and South America, and volume 2, Europe and Asia. While the majority of the fifty-three interviews are with librarians in opera or orchestra library positions, Lo also includes interviews with performance librarians in music theaters, academic institutions, and music societies. In addition, he focuses on performance librarianship during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic made changes necessary due to the nature of music ensembles, Lo asks each interviewee to share how the pandemic affected their work. Lo aims to create a collection that allows readers to have access to the trends and practices that are in place for current and future performance librarians. Though the music ensembles themselves have been around for ages, careers in performance librarianship are a fairly new creation. As such, there is not much formal reference literature available (v. 1, p. 2). Therefore, each interview gives great insight into how performance librarianship has evolved thus far in its short life and how the performance librarians themselves have come to their positions around the world. Lo personalizes the interviews for each of the interviewees and allows them to share their own paths to their careers. Each chapter begins with a brief description of the history of the music institution, which is then followed by the interview. The interviews consist of questions about the librarian's musical background, their position responsibilities, and the scope of their collections. From here, the questions tend to be more personalized to the librarian's own experiences. Many of the. . .