Boris Koutzen (b. Apr. 1,1901 in Uman', Russian Empire, now Ukraine - d. Dec. 10,1966 in Mount Kisco, N.Y.) was a violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher. He played violin for the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He taught at the Philadelphia Conservatory and at Vassar College.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu011001

Bronislava Nijinska (Bronislava Fominichna Nizhinskai︠a︡; b. Jan. 8, 1891 [Dec. 27, 1890] in Minsk, Russian Empire, now Belarus - d. Feb. 21, 1972, Pacific Palisades, Calif.) was a Russian ballet dancer of Polish origin, an innovative choreographer, and influential dance teacher. Nijinska studied ballet at the school of the Maryinsky Theater of Saint Petersburg, along with her celebrity brother, Vaslav Nijinsky. She was a dancer in the Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev where she created a number of roles in ballets by Michel Fokine and Vaslav Nijinsky. Many of Nijinska's most significant works were commissioned by Serge Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes, and include "Le Renard" (1922); "Le Mariage d'Aurore" (1922); "Les Noces" (1923); "Le Train Bleu" (1924); and "Les Biches" (1924). In 1925, Nijinska began her own company, Théâtre Chorégraphique. Other commissions included works for Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires; Ida Rubinstein's Company, Paris; Anna Pavlova's Company; Ballet de l'Opéra Russe à Paris; Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo; Polish Ballet; Colonel W. de Basil's Ballets Russes; Ballet Theatre (New York), among others. She was the author of "Bronislava Nijinska: Early Memoirs" (translated by her daughter, Irina Nijinska, and published in 1981).
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu023015

The collection contains letters, telegrams, postcards, and visiting cards primarily from Igor Stravinsky to Soulima Stravinsky written in period of transition for the family. Stravinsky moved to the United States in 1939, and Soulima and his family followed in 1948, eventually settling in Illinois.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu024004

Jascha Heifetz (b. on Feb. 2, 1901, in Vilna, Russian Empire, now Vilnius, Lithuania - d. Dec. 10, 1987, Los Angeles, Calif.) was an American violinist of Russian birth. The collection includes Heifetz's personal music library of original compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions. Concert programs document his performances from 1911 to 1974, and photographs, photo albums, and scrapbooks span the violinist's entire life. The correspondence contains letters from significant twentieth-century musical figures such as Leopold Auer, Benjamin Britten, Sergei Prokofiev, George Bernard Shaw, and Sir William Walton.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu003008

This collection assembled by Joel M. Berger contains printed music scores, programs, two boxes of photographic postcards that depict Russian opera stars, and 18 photographs.

The Ida Rubinstein collection includes original items purchased by John Wayne; research material, such as photographs and programs, that Wayne duplicated from other repositories; and original materials obtained by Wayne from Rubinstein's last personal secretary, Lina Koll-Ollivier. The latter category includes correspondence, music manuscripts, libretti, clippings, business and personal papers, and some photographs. The collection contains correspondence from some of the most notable cultural figures of the early twentieth century, inlcuding Alexandre Benois, Sarah Bernhardt, Nadia Boulanger, Romaine Brooks, Paul Claudel, Gabriele d'Annunzio, Manuel de Falla, the French novelist Gabriel Faure, André Gide, Arthur Honegger, Jacques Ibert, Darius Milhaud, Robert de Montesquiou, Igor Stravinsky, and Paul Valéry. The libretti include Claudel's manuscript of the complete libretto to Honegger's dramatic oratorio, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, and a heavily edited version, in the hand of Valéry, for Honegger's opera-ballet Sémiramis. The music includes holograph manuscripts of works by Honegger and Atoch, Henri Sauguet's working manuscript for portions of the ballet David, and the only known holograph manuscript (piano-vocal score) for Gabriel Fauré's opera Pénélope. In addition, there are photographs of Rubinstein as she appeared in ballets and dramatic works, as well as informal shots during her extensive travels. There are also photographs of numerous friends and colleagues, including Léon Bakst, Sarah Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse, Loie Fuller, Maurice Ravel, and Anna Pavlova. The John Wayne Research series contains various types of material, including clippings and articles; correspondence to and from Rubinstein as well as Wayne's correspondence that documents his quest for Rubinstein materials; notes, outlines, and drafts for Wayne's biography of Rubinstein; microfilmed documents from various libraries; and ancillary research materials on people and subjects related to Rubinstein.

The collection contains a bound volume of printed Russian art songs and operatic excerpts published in Russia largely before the revolution; at the end of bound volume of printed music a handwritten second soprano part and alto parts of the Country Girls chorus from P. Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" with English lyrics and two copies of "Slavonic Polka" for voice and piano also with English lyrics (in black ink and pencil).

Nicholas Slonimsky, lexicographer, composer, and writer on music, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Apr. 27, 1894. He studied the piano with his aunt, Isabelle Vengerova, a well-known piano pedagogue, at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and composition with Glière. Collection contains materials collected by Slonimsky throughout his lifetime that document his life and work as musicologist, composer, conductor, lecturer and author. Included are personal biographical materials; Slonimsky's writings (drafts, typescripts, reprints, etc.) of newspaper, periodical, journal, and magazine articles, record liner notes, radio broadcasts, and talks, published and unpublished; music composed by Slonimsky, manuscript and printed; concert programs; correspondence, among many others, with Henry Cowell, Alexandre Gretchaninoff, Roy Harris, Charles Ives, and Edgar Varèse; biographical materials on composers and performers mosly generated when Slonimsky was editing Baker's and The international cyclopedia; music collected by Slonimsky, manuscript and printed and multi-composer collections; among the manuscripts are many short holographic works and fragments; scrapbooks; and iconographical material, such as family photographs an those of composers and musicians from the former Soviet Union, as well as little known musicians from the United States and elsewhere.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu002011

Nikolai Lopatnikoff (b. Mar. 16, 1903, in Revel (now Tallinn), Estonia; d. Oct. 7, 1976, in Pittsburgh, Pa.) was an American pianist and composer of Russian origin. His family settled in Heidelberg after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and in 1921 Lopatnikoff began studying with Ernst Toch and Will Rehberg in Mannheim, Germany. His music was premiered in Germany. Lopatnikoff moved to London in 1936 and then New York in 1939. Lopatnikoff became an American citizen in 1944. He taught music theory and composition at various American institutions, such as the Hartt College, Hartford, Connecticut, the Westchester Conservatory, White Plains, New York, and the Carnegie Institute of Technology (later Carnegie Mellon University). From 1948 to 1958, he was in summer residence at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H. Lopatnikoff was awarded with two Guggenheim Fellowships (1945, 1953), a grant and citation from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, of which he was elected a member in 1963, and an NEA grant (1975) for 'Melting Pot,' commissioned by the Indianapolis Ballet.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu005001

Nikolay Karlovich Medtner (b. Jan. 5, 1880, in Moscow; d. Nov. 13, 1951, in London) was a pianist and composer. The collection documents Medtner's personal life and career. The Correspondence series contains family correspondence, primarily among Medtner, brother Ėmiliĭ, and wife Anna; and general correspondence to and from many individuals, including Sergei and Nataliya Rachmaninoff, Leon and Olga Conus, Sophia Aleksandrovna Satina, Konstantin Klimov, Madeleine Laliberté (Mrs. Albert Laliberté), Bernard and Cecile Pinsonneault, Abbé J.G. Turcotte, Sadhu Singh Dhami, Issay Dobrowen, Marcel Dupré, Aleksandr Gedike, Leopold Godowsky, Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar, Benno Moiseiwitsch, and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji. The Programs series contains programs of concerts given by Medtner; the Articles series contains articles and newspaper clippings about Medtner; and the Photographs series primarily contains inscribed photographs of various musicians, including Rachmaninoff (there is only one photograph of Medtner). The Miscellany series includes reviews, catalogs, artwork, realia, and other miscellaneous items. The Books series includes literary titles containing Medtner's annotations, and his own copy of Muza i moda. The Music series consists of printed scores and three manuscripts in Medtner's hand.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu011018

Victor Babin was a composer and pianist born in Moscow in 1908.
The collection primarily consists of correspondence, but also contains programs, photographs, clippings and other material relating to various aspects of Babin's life and career. A large portion of material relates to Babin's concerts for the U. S. Army during World War II. Letters from Babin during World War II are chiefly V-mail. Correspondents include his wife and musical partner Vitya (Vronsky) Babin, Leonard Bernstein, Witter Bynner, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Aaron Copland, F.C. Coppicus, Jacques Ibert, Goddard Lieberson, Nicolai Medtner, Darius and Madeleine Milhaud, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Serge Prokofiev, Natalie and Sergei Rachmaninoff, Fritz Reiner, Fred C. Schang, Terese Schnabel, Igor and Vera Stravinsky, Alexander Tcherepnin, and Irina Wolkonsky.

The Serge Grigoriev / Ballets Russes Archive is comprised of materials that document Sergeĭ Grigorʹev's career as a dancer and régisseur (rehearsal director) for the Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev and for Col. W. de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. It consists primarily of photographs, photograph albums, and notes and manuscript drafts for Grigorʹev's book S.P. Diaghilev i ego 'Russkii Balet,' 1909-1929, which was translated into English and published as The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909-1929. The archive also contains Grigorʹev's unpublished manuscript for his work Original'nyi Russkii Balet pod upravleniem Colonel W. De Basil 1932-1952. Although the majority of the materials relate to the companies of Diaghilev and de Basil, the archive contains several items from another Russian ballet company, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. In addition, the archive includes programs, additional writings by Grigorʹev, clippings, tour information and drawings.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu010001

The Sergei Rachmaninoff Archive contains material related to his life and career after he and his family left Russia in 1917 to establish themselves in the United States. Of particular importance are Rachmaninoff's holograph music manuscript scores and sketches, representing his compositional process and creative thought during the last half of his life. These scores include not only manuscript and published scores of Rachmaninoff's works, but those of other composers as well, reflecting the musical interests of the composer and his family members. The archive also contains extensive correspondence to and from Rachmaninoff; writings by and about Rachmaninoff, including items about his works, performances, and repertoire; and photographs of Rachmaninoff, his wife and family, friends and notables. There are also reviews, biographical articles and clippings, awards, honors and presentation volumes, concert programs, promotional materials, scrapbooks, financial papers, realia, and published books and journals held within the personal library of Rachmaninoff and his family.
The Papers of Sophie Satin series is devoted to the composer's sister-in-law and biographer. This section consists of Satin's writings, as well as the results of her lifelong research on Rachmaninoff. It contains research notes and published material relating to Rachmaninoff which was compiled by Satin over the course of her lifetime. Also included are various notes, drafts and other materials documenting the writing of Sergei Rachmaninoff: a lifetime in music (1956), a biography by Sergei Bertensson and Jay Leyda (with Satin's assistance); copies (in English and Russian) of Satin's own autobiography; and material related to Rachmaninoff collected by Satin after the deaths of both Rachmaninoff and his wife.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu015003

Serge Koussevitzky (b. July 26, 1874, Vishniĭ Volochek, Russia - d. June 4, 1951, Boston, Mass.) was a conductor, composer, and double-bassist. He was an innovator and visionary in his roles as a composer, music director, music publisher, recording artist, champion of contemporary music, and supporter of musicians' rights. He founded the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood Music Center) in 1940, and as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949, he championed the music of American composers. His publishing house, Édition Russe de Musique, issued music by Scriabin, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu002008

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (b. Mar. 31, 1872, in Selishchev Barracks, a military community in Novgorod province, Russia - d. Aug. 19, 1929, in Venice, Italy) was a Russian art critic, patron, and impresario. This collection is comprised in large part of printed music, widely representing 18th century Italian and 19th century Russian operatic music. It includes rare pre-revolutionary editions of Russian folk songs, annotated performance scores of Stravinsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gounod, Cimarosa. Non-musical materials include three letters from S. Prokofiev to S. Diaghilev, rare editions of books on music, literature and theater, libretti and synopses, souvenir books and programs and photographs. Several of the programs and photographs show Léon Bakst's set and costume designs. Non-musical materials also include Diaghilev's personal notebook, containing entries in French, Russian and English written from 1926 to 1929.
Finding aid: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu003011

Vladimir Ussachevsky (1911-1990) was one of the first composers of electronic music in the 1950s. He immigrated from Manchuria in 1930 to the United States and received music degrees from Pasadena Junior College, Pomona College, and the University of Rochester. After working with the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, Ussachevsky married Elizabeth Denison Kray and started teaching at Columbia University. In 1959 he established and directed the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center with Otto Luening, Milton Babbitt, and Roger Sessions. Ussachevsky later became the composer in residence and subsequently professor at the University of Utah. Contains manuscript music, correspondence, photographs, academic papers, business papers, programs, promotional materials, clippings, technical materials, notes, and other published materials.