I’m a music archivist at the New York Public Library’s Wilson Processing Project. The Wilson Project’s mission is to process and catalog backlog collections from the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Since beginning work there in mid-2004, I’ve processed the collections of Teo Macero, Meredith Monk, Susannah McCorkle, Ross Lee Finney, Ivan Black, Miriam Gideon, Louis Gruenberg, and Joe Reisman, among others. The level of fame of these musicians and composers (and publicist, in one case) varies, but I can attest that getting to know each one of them was a pleasure, and that each had a fascinating life and record of accomplishment that I was honored to lay out for future researchers. You can view the online finding aids I produced for these collections here.

For a couple of years, I also served George Avakian, former producer for Columbia, Decca, RCA, Warner Brothers and World Pacific records, as his archivist. Mr. Avakian is a hugely important figure in American music. (As I recently heard the musician/lawyer David Ostwald say, “Google him if you want to know more.”) Unfortunately, between my music career and studies and my day job, it became too difficult to continue my work with George. However, I'm generally free to answer questions from people about the preservation or donation of their (or their relative's) personal collections to a repository. It’s very easy and natural (and probably healthy) for performing artists to not be focused on the long-term storage and survival of their own documentation; that’s where the archivist comes in.

Archives as a career option occurred to me around 1990, when I first visited the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies in Newark, NJ. Some years later, after a long, rough but artistically rewarding period pursuing a full-time musical life, I remembered the Institute, and that schools actually gave out degrees that qualified one to work in such a place. I already had a subject masters degree (in jazz studies, from Indiana University), which made the choice of an additional career in music archives even easier. I got my masters in library science at Queens College, where I interned at the Louis Armstrong Archives; I also did an internship at the Institute of Jazz Studies.

I’m a member of both the Society of American Archivists and the Music Library Association, host to the MLA Big Band, a rowdy bunch that gigs regularly (once year, at the annual conference).