Overview
Papers of baritone, singing teacher, and founder of Boston Academy of Music, Richard Conrad.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1855-2013
Creator
- Conrad, Richard (Person)
Language of Materials
English and German
Conditions Governing Access
Restricted: limited access to audiotapes, phonograph records, and VHS tape; use surrogates. For access to originals, consult curatorial staff.
The bulk of this collection is open for research.
The bulk of this collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
33 linear feet (36 boxes, 1 folder)Includes production books, correspondence, artwork, audiovisual material, appointment books, clippings, compositions, albums of personal memorabilia and ephemera, photographs, and publicity files; much of this material relates to the Boston Academy of Music.
Biographical / Historical
Richard Conrad (1935-2019) was a baritone, singing teacher, and founder of Boston Academy of Music. Conrad studied lieder and German operatic repertoire with conductor and composer, Felix Wolfes, in Boston. Following a singing career in London, Rome, and throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, and North America, Conrad returned to Boston in 1980 where he founded The Boston Academy of Music. In 1983 Conrad was the victim of a mugging in which his voice was severely injured; after exhaustive rehabilitation, Conrad returned to singing in Italian bel canto, music reviews, and on Broadway in New York (N.Y.). He taught in Boston as well as in New York, where he taught in the home of his friend and colleague, American soprano, Eleanor Steber. Conrad died at home in Maine in August of 2019.
Arrangement
Collection is minimally processed; arranged in series by accession number (that is, in order of receipt).
Physical Location
Harvard Depository, b, pf, ppf
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2006MT-114r. Gift of Richard Conrad, 1965, 1966, 1973, and other unknown dates.
2011MT-29. Gift of Richard Conrad, 2012.
2013MT-31. Gift of Richard Conrad, 2014.
2020MT-47. Gift of Richard Conrad, 2019 September.
Processing Information
Processed by Melanie Wisner, 2019.
Creator
- Conrad, Richard (Person)
- Title
- Conrad, Richard. Richard Conrad papers, circa 1855-2013 (MS Thr 1998): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University
- Date
- 2019 October 24
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou03273
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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