The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation

09/03/2026

The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation is pleased to welcome Dr. Beatriz Martínez del Fresno as a Visiting Research Scholar for the Fall 2026 semester.

An internationally recognized musicologist and dance historian, Dr. Martínez del Fresno is Full Professor of Musicology at the Universidad de Oviedo. Her research has helped shape the fields of Spanish music and dance studies, with particular expertise in 20th-century Spanish dance, cultural diplomacy, nationalism, gender, and transatlantic exchange. Over the course of her career, she has directed numerous nationally funded research projects and published extensively on the intersections of music, dance, politics, and identity.

During her residency, Dr. Martínez del Fresno will pursue her project, "Spanish Ballet Companies in the United States of America (1953–1968): Cultural Diplomacy, Circulation and Reception", which examines the role of Spanish dance companies in shaping cultural relations between Spain and the United States during the Cold War. Drawing on archival collections in New York, her research explores how performance functioned as a vehicle for diplomacy, artistic exchange, and national identity while addressing an important gap in the history of transatlantic dance.

Working in collaboration with the Foundation for Iberian Music, Dr. Martínez del Fresno will conduct research at the Mina Rees Library, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and other archival collections throughout New York City. Her scholarship reflects the Brook Center's commitment to interdisciplinary research and to understanding music and dance within their broader cultural, political, and historical contexts.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Beatriz Martínez del Fresno to the Brook Center.

08/27/2026

5 Days Left to Nominate!

There are just 5 days left to submit nominations for the Barry and Claire Brook Award, presented by the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation.

The award recognizes exceptional scholarship in global music history, honoring an outstanding single- or co-authored monograph, dissertation, or edited collection.

Don’t miss the deadline—submit your nomination by September 1!

📚 Learn more and nominate: https://brookcenter.gc.cuny.edu/2026/01/15/the-2026-barry-and-claire-brook-award/

08/19/2026

Why do we keep returning to the musical past?

Is revival an act of preservation or reinvention? What do nostalgia, memory, and rediscovery reveal about the societies that embrace them?

These questions are at the heart of Postmodernity's Musical Pasts, an international conference exploring how musicians, scholars, and audiences have reimagined the past in the decades since World War II.

From early music and folk revivals to postwar composition and musicological thought, the presentations examine how history continues to shape musical creation, performance, and scholarship.

🎧 Listen to the complete conference on the Brook Center's YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLznFJbNzkNK8uAR6hRaxmPES4Iuk_rAwX

In the longue durée of music history, rediscovery, recovery, revival, and renewal were central in the creation of repertoires and performance practices. With...

07/14/2026

The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation is pleased to welcome Claudia Patanè to the Graduate Center this summer for a period of scholarly research and collaboration.

An internationally active conductor, Patanè has led performances with orchestras and opera houses across Europe and South Africa, including the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, Theater Erfurt, the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the North Bohemian Philharmonic Teplice. Equally at home in opera, symphonic repertoire, ballet, musical theatre, and contemporary music, she has earned recognition for her versatile musicianship and dynamic artistic leadership. Most recently, she made a celebrated debut at the 2025 Rossini in Wildbad Belcanto Opera Festival, conducting Petite Messe Solennelle and L'Inganno Felice to critical acclaim.

Currently a Ph.D. candidate in Music Theory and Analysis at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Patanè's scholarly interests complement her work on the podium. During her visit to New York, she will consult archival collections and conduct research in collaboration with the directors of the Brook Center's Music in Gotham and Research Center for Music Iconography (RCMI) projects, exploring materials that support her ongoing research in nineteenth-century musical culture and performance.

We are delighted to welcome Claudia Patanè to the Brook Center and look forward to the conversations and collaborations her visit will inspire.

06/18/2026

📚 to November 2022 and Reaching the Ears of the Nation: Frederick Douglass’ Narratives and the African American Musical Traditions. Presented as part of the ERC Seminar Series - https://www.romanticcentury.org/seminars - in partnership with the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation.

Held in advance of ERC's audio drama July 5th by Ken Green, the seminar exemplified the value of bringing performance and scholarship into conversation. As audiences prepared to encounter Green's dramatization of Frederick Douglass's famous speech, What to the American Slave Is the Fourth of July?, scholars explored the broader intellectual and cultural legacy behind the work.

Featuring ethnomusicologist Jason Lee Oakes and musicologist James Melo, the seminar examined how Douglass's narratives of freedom and personhood resonated across African American musical traditions. From the development of African American classical music to the cultural role of hip hop and rap, the seminar traced the ways music has sustained and amplified conversations about identity, resistance, memory, and social justice.

Like all ERC seminars, the event invited audiences to engage with music through an interdisciplinary lens, demonstrating how historical inquiry, cultural criticism, and performance can illuminate one another in meaningful and unexpected ways.

Interested in learning more? The full recording of July 5th, an interview with playwright Ken Green, and a collection of educational resources remain available on ERC's Watch & Listen page: https://www.romanticcentury.org/watch-and-listen-page

06/04/2026

🏖️Summer reminder! 🌞

Nominations remain open for the 2026 Barry and Claire Brook Award, recognizing outstanding scholarship in global music history.

We welcome nominations of monographs, dissertations, and collaborative collections that explore music through migration, mobility, transculturation, circulation, and other interconnected historical and cultural perspectives.

📅 Eligible works must have a 2025/26 copyright date
📅 Submission deadline: 1 September 2026

Learn more and submit a nomination:
https://brookcenter.gc.cuny.edu/.../the-2026-barry-and.../

Please share with colleagues, publishers, and institutions who may wish to nominate exceptional work.

05/19/2026

Did you know that Music in Gotham continues the groundbreaking work of music historian Vera Brodsky Lawrence? Her monumental trilogy Strong on Music (1836–1862) opened a window onto New York’s vibrant 19th-century musical life through the diaries of George Templeton Strong.

When Lawrence passed away before completing her study, musicologists Adrienne Fried Block and John Graziano took up the torch, expanding her vision into the digital age. With support from the Barry S. Brook Center, the NEH, and the Baisley Powell Elebash Endowment, they built a searchable database documenting every known musical performance in New York City between 1862 and 1875.

Today, Music in Gotham stands as a living archive of America’s musical past, freely accessible to scholars, students, and music lovers everywhere.

Explore the database: www.musicingotham.org

05/12/2026

The idea for RILM, as its founder Barry S. Brook later reflected, originated in 1964 from the belief that “the alternative to automation was inundation”. The idea was first publicly pre…

04/21/2026

The full proceedings of Voicing Innocence: Trauma, Memory, and Contemporary Opera in the Work of Kaija Saariaho are now fully digitized and available to watch.

From keynote conversations to interdisciplinary panels, revisit the ideas, questions, and exchanges that shaped two remarkable days at the CUNY Graduate Center—or experience them for the first time.

▶️ Watch the complete playlist on the Brook Center YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLznFJbNzkNK-czh_9jUEBxwZ25wRVfhOK

Free, accessible, and open to all—because these conversations deserve to keep resonating.

And if you haven’t yet experienced Innocence live, there’s still time to see The Metropolitan Opera's powerful production before it closes on April 29—take the conversation from the screen to stage.

Voicing Innocence is an international public conference that explores how music and sound give voice to trauma, vulnerability, and ethical responsibility in ...

04/08/2026

Yesterday, Voicing Innocence brought together an extraordinary community of scholars, artists, and listeners to engage deeply with Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence—its artistry, its questions, and its urgency. The conversations were rich, thoughtful, and resonant well beyond the room.

And we’re not done yet.

Join us today as we close the conference with a special concert celebrating Saariaho’s work with electronics—an immersive program that extends the themes of the conference into sound.

Featured Performers:
Tuija Hakkila - harpsichord and piano
Hannah Collins - violoncello
Joann Whang - violoncello
Olga Heikkilä - soprano

This evening also marks the opening of the Overdrive Festival, and the Brook Center is thrilled to partner with them to bring this concert to life.

🎶 Come be part of the closing moments of Voicing Innocence—and the opening energy of Overdrive.
Learn more: https://overdrive.nyc/