Sound recordings

Specialists

Libraries

Blogs

Russell and Sigurd Varian audiorecordings added to the Internet Archive | September 14, 2017
2000+ audio cassettes from Allen Ginsberg collection now streaming from SearchWorks | July 18, 2017
KZSU Project South exhibit features streaming audio and transcripts of 1965 civil rights campaign | May 23, 2017
Piano roll scanner update | April 10, 2017
New shelving in ARS | April 5, 2017

Notable collections

  • Monterey Jazz Festival logo

    The Monterey Jazz Festival Collection

    Recordings of live performances throughout the history of this enduring American cultural institution.

  • Privately produced Leopold Auer recording, signed by the artist on June 7, 1920.

    Jascha Heifetz Collection

    The Heifetz Collection features recordings by the violinist and a rare unpublished recording by Leopold Auer.

  • Yehudi Menuhin

    Yehudi Menuhin Collection

    The Menuhin Collection contains many test pressings of Menuhin's performances as a violin soloist.

  • Mario Ancona

    Mario Ancona Collection

    The Mario Ancona Collection includes photographs, memorabilia, sound recordings, and more related to Ancona's career.

  • Ruth and Mario Chamlee in Manon

    Ruth and Mario Chamlee Collection

    Tenor Mario Chamlee sang at the leading opera houses in the United States and abroad. His wife Ruth was a soprano and noted singing teacher.

  • Richard Crooks as Pinkerton

    Richard Crooks Collection

    Richard Crooks was a tenor with the Metropolitan Opera Company.

  • Ted Fagan

    Theodore Fagan Collection

    This is the personal collection of Theodore Fagan, United Nations translator, author, and music collector.

  • Kirsten Flagstad

    Kirsten Flagstad Collection

    Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962) was known as the premier Wagnerian soprano of her time.

  • Richard Finnie and colleagues

    Richard Finnie Collection

    Open reel tape recordings made by documentary filmmaker, photographer, ethnographer, and historian Richard Sterling Finnie.

  • Riverwalk Jazz logo

    Riverwalk Jazz Collection

    Riverwalk Jazz: Live At The Landing educated and entertained public radio listeners with a program devoted to celebrating traditional jazz and popular music of the pre-war era.

  • l to r: Jim Cullum Sr., Willson Davis, Louis Armstrong, Harvey Kindervater, and Jim Cullum Jr., 1965.

    Jim Cullum Collection

    The Happy Jazz Band was formed in 1962 by Jim Cullum with his son, Jim Cullum, Jr. in San Antonio, Texas. Devoted to jazz from between the World Wars, the Happy Jazz Band was perhaps the foremost exponent of Dixieland in the Southwest. Jim Cullum, Jr. continued the band after his father passed as the Jim Cullum Jazz Band. The Jim Cullum Collection consists of tape recordings of the Happy Jazz Band and the Jim Cullum Jazz Band and covers over thirty years of the band's performances.

  • Ambassador Auditorium, Pasadena, CA

    Ambassador Auditorium Collection

    Files of the organizational departments of the Ambassador Auditorium as well as audio and video recordings.

  • KZSU Project South

    KZSU Project South Interviews

    Transcripts and audio recordings of interviews with Civil Rights workers in the South recorded by Stanford students during the summer of 1965.

  • Philip G. Zimbardo

    Philip G. Zimbardo Papers

    Research and teaching files, professional files and correspondence, audiovisual materials, professional papers, and materials documenting the Stanford Prison Experiment.

  • Campus planning

    Stanford University Audio Collection

    Audio recordings of Stanford events and activities.

  • French Horn

    William C. Lynch Dennis Brain Collection

    The William C. Lynch Dennis Brain Collection principally consists of commercial and unpublished recordings of the world renowned British horn player, Dennis Brain (1921-1957).

  • Blanche Thebom as Laura, in La Gioconda

    Blanche Thebom Collection

    The Blanche Thebom Collection consists of scores, correspondence, publicity, production notes, and media from the mezzo-soprano's post-Met career as teacher and director.

  • KSFO logo circa 1950-1965

    KSFO Collection

    The KSFO collection consists of audiovisual material and ephemera from this San Francisco radio station's years owned by Golden West Broadcasting, 1956-1983.

  • James Schwabacher

    James Schwabacher Collection

    The James Schwabacher Collection consists of sound recordings, correspondence, scores, scrapbooks, clippings, programs, teaching material and other papers from San Francisco philanthropist and lyric tenor James Schwabacher.

  • Richard Hadlock

    Richard Hadlock Annals of Jazz Collection

    Open reel tape recordings of the “Annals of Jazz” radio program produced and hosted by historian and educator Richard Hadlock, broadcast on KCSM, San Mateo between 1982 and 1991.

  • Earl Hines, New York, ca. Mar. 1947

    Ken Ackerman Collection

    The Ken Ackerman Collection consists of broadcast recordings of live jazz performances from the 1950s and 60s, captured at various clubs in San Francisco, particularly Club Hangover.

  • Grażyna Bacewicz

    Judith Rosen Collection

    The Judith Rosen Collection consists of unpublished recordings of performances, lectures, and radio programs concerning classical music, focusing on twentieth century composition, as well as women musicians and composers.

  • Alan Farley

    Alan Farley Collection

    The Alan Farley Collection consists primarily of recordings made for the radio program Book Talk on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco, California.

  • Front cover image from Nothing Left in my Hands by Kazuko Nakane

    Issei Oral History Project in Watsonville Collection

    The Issei Oral History Project in Watsonville consists of interviews conducted by Kazuko Nakane from 1978 to 1983 with fifteen Japanese-American residents in Watsonville, California.

  • Gerhard Samuel

    Gerhard Samuel Collection

    Papers and recordings from American conductor and composer Gerhard Samuel (1924-2008), particularly from his years conducting the Oakland Symphony, Minneapolis Symphony, and University of Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra.

  • Arturo Toscanini poses on a ship's deck

    Jack Lund Collection

    The Jack Lund Collection contains personal papers of Jack Lund, an avid classical music collector, as well as numerous newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, and music books.

  • Tape container for Wind (1961)

    Richard Maxfield Collection

    The Richard Maxfield Collection consists of electronic music written by Maxfield on open reel tape from 1959 to 1964. Some tape boxes appear annotated by the composer. Nine are labeled as distinct works, while two others are more likely to be work tapes or copies. Pastoral Symphony, Amazing Grace and Cough Music are some of his more canonical pieces, and date from the period considered his most prolific. Maxfield would edit tapes for each performance to ensure a unique event, and it is unknown what versions these recordings represent.

  • Denis Condon Collection of Reproducing Pianos and Rolls

    Over his lifetime, Denis Condon (1933-2012) amassed a collection of over 7500 piano rolls and ten instruments. The collection contains rolls of important composers of the period, all playing their own works.

  • Sitsky piano roll catalogs

    Larry Sitsky Piano Roll Catalog Collection

    The noted Australian composer and pianist, Larry Sitsky, is also the author of The Classical Reproducing Piano Roll: A Catalogue Index. This comprehensive rollography represents years of work documenting all known reproducing piano rolls of classical music ever issued. In compiling this listing, he acquired photocopies of rare piano roll catalogs consisting of about 250 volumes. In addition, he collected another 80 volumes of original catalogs.