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Gregg Smith Singers Recordings

An inventory of the collection at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: MRC
Date: 2 Jun 2011

Biographical History

The Gregg Smith Singers were founded by Gregg Smith in 1955, who remains their director, program designer and conductor today (2011). The group's mission, as articulated on their website, is "to encourage the development and preservation of American choral music, with an emphasis on new works of the 20th and 21st centuries, through performances, recordings, workshops and publications."

The Gregg Smith Singers have won numerous awards over the course of their career, and are internationally known for their intepretations of contemporary music and performances of works by living composers. The group had a strong working relationship with Igor Stravinsky for more than a decade and performed at his funeral. Among other achievements, in 1973 the group initiated both a New York City concert series and the Adirondack Festival of American Music (AFAM) in Saranac Lake, N.Y., both of which continue today (2011). They have won three Grammy Awards, two Montreux Awards, and the Stereo Review 1966 Record of the Year award for their Columbia recording of the music of the Revolutionary American composer, William Billings. Gregg Smith has also received a number of individual awards recognizing his contribution to the field of American choral music.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Gregg Smith Singers Recordings consists of memorabilia and recordings.

Memorabilia contains clippings, programs, publicity, and other assorted material pertaining to the group and their performances.

Recordings contains more than 900 reel-to-reel audiorecordings. Titles given in the inventory below are exactly as written on the items. The group's sound engineer often gave humorous titles to the tapes; for example, a recording of the group at Saranac might be titled "Smithanac" and a recording of Rosalind Rees and Ned Rorem might be titled "RozRem." ID numbers (e.g., "gss_075") have been assigned by staff. Please request items using both title and ID number.

Arrangement of the Collection

Recordings are arranged in numeric order by ID number, but are listed alphabetically in the inventory below.

Other Related Finding Aids

A full discography in PDF format is available on the Gregg Smith Singers website.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The media for this collection has been processed. Access to recordings requires advance notice to create a use copy.

The remainder of the collection is currently unprocessed and not available for research. Please contact Special Collections Research Centerfor more information

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Subject Headings

Persons

Smith, Gregg.

Corporate Bodies

Gregg Smith Singers.
Gregg Smith Vocal Quartet.

Subjects

Choral conductors -- United States.
Choral music -- 20th century
Choruses, Secular (Mixed voices)
Composers -- United States.
Music -- United States -- 20th century.

Genres and Forms

Sound recordings.
Tape reels.

Occupations

Conductors.
Singers.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Gregg Smith Singers Recordings,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Gregg Smith, 2011.

Table of Contents

Memorabilia

Recordings

Inventory