Performing Arts Archives

Larry Long archive acquisition

The University of Minnesota Libraries is honored to have acquired American Troubadour, Larry Long's legacy collection into the Performing Arts Archive. 

The complete archive includes recordings, oral histories, media, posters, correspondence, national and local work with schools and communities, and personal writings that document his decades of songwriting and performing and artistic collaborations. 

Larry Long has written and performed hundreds of ballads celebrating community and history makers. He has given musical voice to struggling Midwest farmers, embattled workers, veterans, and underrepresented communities. Long’s work in Minnesota elementary schools sparked the creation of an international non-profit organization, Community Celebration of Place, which creates intergenerational and multicultural opportunities for students to learn and grow through a program called Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song.

Archives of Pulitzer-Prize winning composer acquired

The Performing Arts Archives recently welcomed the archives of composer and Professor Emeritus Dominick Argento. The collection, totaling 30 boxes, includes letters, score manuscripts, signed photographs, and several rare recordings.

The materials illustrate the composer’s impressive creative output as well as his collaborative relationships with other Twin Cities musicians and musical groups, including Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence, Dale Warland and the Dale Warland Singers, the Minnesota Opera, and tenor Vern Sutton. For more information about the collection, please contact ascref@umn.edu.