Tucked away on a quiet corner of Brown's campus is one of the
younger members of the University library system. Barely eight years old, the
Virginia Baldwin Orwig Music Library is already an important and impressive
music resource. The Library is housed in a Beaux Arts mansion which had
already undergone a number of unusual transformations - home, hospital, Bryant
College administration building - before its final renovation in 1987. This
redesign of the mansion's first floor and extensive renovation of its basement
created a 2000 foot reading room, 9000 square feet of stack space, offices and
a 16 carrel high tech listening room. Although its new space is sunny and
inviting - it is the Orwig's collections that are truly impressive.
The Jellinek and Mastroianni collections are both part of the Walter Neiman Archive of Sound Recordings - the heart of the Orwig Music Library.
Walter Neiman was a member of the class of 1946 and manager of WQRX, the New York Times classical radio station. After Mr. Neiman's death in 1983, his family and friends created the Archive as a memorial to his love of music and his dedication to Brown. Recordings, scores and monetary gifts poured into the Library. The primary focus of the collection is opera and classical music.
"I can't tell you what the Neiman Archive has meant to us and the students," says Carol Tatian, Music Librarian. Not only are the actual recordings important to the Library, so is the monetary income generated by the Archive's endowment. Last year income from the Neiman Endowment was used to purchase 900 new compact discs for the for the music library.