Lewis Music Library receives $250,000 to fund oral history project

The Lewis Music Library recently received a $250,000 gift from Lionel Kinney (1953) to support the Music at MIT Oral History Project. The project was started by the library in 1999 to document the history of music at MIT through recorded audio interviews with current and retired MIT music faculty, staff, former students, and visiting artists.

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For over 100 years, music has been a vibrant part of MIT’s culture. Kinney’s gift will help ensure this legacy is preserved for the historical record by providing the funding needed to conduct in-depth interviews with five individuals per year for the next five years. It will also allow the library to identify key interview subjects and obtain information about MIT’s music history that has not been documented in other sources.

As interviews are completed, they will be available for listening in the library. Written transcripts will also be available. For more information about the project and to see a list of recorded interviews, go to //libraries.mit.edu/music/oralhistory/index.html.