Larry Livingston

Larry Livingston is known as a distinguished conductor, educator,administrator, and a motivational speaker. The founding Music Director of the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, Livingston has appeared with the Houston Symphony and in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series.  He has conducted at the Festival de Musique in Evian, France, and has led the Stockholm Wind Orchestra, as well as the Leopoldinum Chamber, Chopin Academy, and Wroclaw Academy Orchestras in Poland. He served as Music Director of the Pan Pacific Festival Orchestras in Sydney, participated as a performer and clinician at the International Jazz Festival in Rome, and conducted an electro-acoustic ensemble in concerts in Tokyo under the auspices of Yamaha International.  Mr. Livingston has led the American Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra, the USC Thornton Chamber and Symphony Orchestras in Los Angeles and the USC Thornton Contemporary Music Ensemble in Berlin. In 2001, he served on the jury for the renowned Besancon International Conducting Competition in Besancon, France.
 
Mr. Livingston frequently appears with professional, festival, collegiate, and all-state wind ensembles, bands and orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. From 1983 to 2002, he served as a conductor in the University of Michigan All-State Program at Interlochen, and has been the Conductor of the Festival Orchestra at Idyllwild Arts since 1989.  From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Livingston regularly toured Germany and Slovakia with the Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie. During the 2004-2005, Mr. Livingston toured with the famed Landes Jugend Orchester, served as clinician and guest conductor at the College Band Directors National Conference in Alice Tully Hall, led the New Mexico All-State Orchestra, and the USC Thornton School Symphony. In the 2005-2006 season, he appeared with the George Enescu Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania, the Katowice Academy Orchestra in Poland, the Oregon All State Orchestra, and served as clinician for the University of Northern Colorado Conducting Symposium.  In addition, he conducted the Thornton Symphony Orchestra with guest soloist, Itzhak Perlman, and the Thornton Chamber Orchestra.

Mr. Livingston earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan and completed Ph.D. coursework in theoretical studies at the University of California, San Diego. He studied conducting and interpretation with Laurence Livingston, Elizabeth Green, William Revelli, Keith Humble, Rafael Druian, and Herbert Zipper. From 1977 to 1982, Mr. Livingston served as Vice President and Music Director of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he was also Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and Contemporary Music Ensemble. Subsequently, he became Dean of the Shepherd School of Music and Elma Schneider Professor of Music (Conducting) at Rice University in Houston. From 1986 until 2002, Mr. Livingston served as Dean of the USC Flora L. Thornton School of Music, where he is Chair of the Conducting Department, and Music Director of Thornton School Orchestras.  As a motivational speaker, he has established a national reputation for inspiring presentations to corporate and business leaders across the United States.  Since 2002, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Guitar Center, the world’s largest retail music store chain.

Biographical Source: Thornton School of Music-Faculty Profiles-Larry J. Livingston (Accessed 12 November 2008)  https://music.usc.edu/larry-j-livingston/

Physical description

The Larry Livingston collection contains.5 lin. ft. or half of a record carton. The collection consists of paper records only, organized into eighty-one folders.

Provenance

This collection was generated by Larry Livingston during his tenure at NEC as Assistant to the President and Vice President.  These materials had been kept in storage until they were transferred to the Archives in 2004.

Access

Access to the Larry Livingston Papers is granted by the Archivist.  Appointments must be scheduled in advance. There may be some restrictions on this collection, primarily with regards to the faculty files. Issues concerning access will be addressed on a case by case basis.

Copyright

All copyrights to this collection belong to the New England Conservatory. Permission to publish materials from this collection is granted by the Director of Libraries. This collection should be cited as: Larry J. Livingston Papers, New England Conservatory Archives, Boston, MA.

Scope & Content

The Larry Livingston Papers are organized into five series:

1. Correspondence
2. Faculty Files
3. Academic Department Files
4. Subject Files
5. External Files

Larry Livingston’s Correspondence includes general correspondence spanning the years 1977-1981, as well as correspondence with the NEC Community, NEC staff/administration, and students/parents. The general correspondence is largely comprised of scheduling of guest artists’ visits, other invitations, recommendations, and job applications.

Faculty files make up a large portion of this collection. These files contain correspondence and/or materials relating to individual faculty members.  They are arranged alphabetically by faculty member’s last name. There is also one faculty file which deals with faculty evaluations and governance.

In the Academic Department series, there is particular focus on the departments of African-American music, Jazz, Music History/Music Literature, Performance of Early Music (PEM), Third Stream, and Undergraduate Theory.  Livingston was very involved in a review of the Orchestra program (Large Ensemble file) and the search for a new director.

Two Subject files also concern the NEC orchestra – one documenting the guest conductors program and the other, the orchestra’s trip to Evian, France, as well as Livingston’s involvement with the scholarship ensembles. The subject files also contain a mission/goals statement for NEC written by Livingston and a band repertoire list drafted by Livingston.  Other topics covered in the subject files include the Crest Recording Project, the Medium Rare Big Band, NEC Instruments, the Firestone collection, and the WGBH Radio Broadcasts.

There are only two External Files – one pertaining to the Brookline Youth Concerts, and the other to Simmons College.

Container List

Series 1:  Correspondence

Folder 1 – Correspondence, General, 1977
Folder 2 – Correspondence, General, 1978
Folder 3 – Correspondence, General, 1979
Folder 4 – Correspondence, General, 1980
Folder 5 – Correspondence, General, 1981
Folder 6 – Correspondence, NEC Community
Folder 7 – Correspondence, NEC Staff, Administration
Folder 8 – Correspondence, Students

Series 2: Faculty Files

Folder 9 – Faculty Files, Community
Folder 10 – Faculty Files, Individuals
Folder 11 – Faculty Senate, Evaluation/Governing Committee
Folder 12 – Faculty Files, Atkins, Carl
Folder 13 – Faculty Files, Barbeau, Bernard
Folder 14 – Faculty Files, Battisti, Frank
Folder 15 – Faculty Files, Berger, Arthur
Folder 16 – Faculty Files, Blake, Ran
Folder 17 – Faculty Files, Ceely, Robert
Folder 18 – Faculty Files, Cogan, Robert
Folder 19 – Faculty Files, DeVaron, Lorna Cooke
Folder 20 – Faculty Files, DeVoll, Ray
Folder 21 – Faculty Files, Felice, John
Folder 22 – Faculty Files, Giuffre, Jimmy
Folder 23 – Faculty Files, Hallmark, Anne
Folder 24 – Faculty Files, Hayashi, Yuko
Folder 25 – Faculty Files, Heiss, John
Folder 26 – Faculty Files, Hoffmann, James
Folder 27 – Faculty Files, Hollenbeck, Patrick
Folder 28 – Faculty Files, Jeppesen, Laura
Folder 29 – Faculty Files, Lafferty, Donald
Folder 30 – Faculty Files, Lehner, Eugene
Folder 31 - Faculty Files, Leisner, David
Folder 32 – Faculty Files, Lesser, Laurence
Folder 33 – Faculty Files, Martino, Donald
Folder 34 – Faculty Files, Maxym, Stephen
Folder 35 – Faculty Files, McKinley, William Thomas
Folder 36 – Faculty Files, Monteux, Claude
Folder 37 – Faculty Files, Moore, Richard
Folder 38 – Faculty Files, Nagel, Robert
Folder 39 – Faculty Files, Nagin, Carl
Folder 40 – Faculty Files, Pinkham, Daniel
Folder 41 – Faculty Files, Pittman, Richard
Folder 42 – Faculty Files, Radnofsky, Kenneth
Folder 43 – Faculty Files, Rapier, Wayne
Folder 44 – Faculty Files, Rosenbaum, Victor
Folder 45 – Faculty Files, Rosenblith, Eric
Folder 46 – Faculty Files, Roth, Kenneth
Folder 47 – Faculty Files, Row, Peter
Folder 48 – Faculty Files, Schaefer, Lois
Folder 49 – Faculty Files, Shapiro, Lois
Folder 50 – Faculty Files, Sherman, Russell
Folder 51 – Faculty Files, Shure, Leonard
Folder 52 – Faculty Files, Stewart, John
Folder 53 – Faculty Files, Sutton, Julia
Folder 54 – Faculty Files, Walters, Mike
Folder 55 – Faculty Files, Zander, Benjamin
Folder 56 – Faculty Files, Zaritsky, Gerald

Series 3:  Academic Departments

Folder 57 – Afro-American Music
Folder 58 – Composition
Folder 59 – Electronic Music
Folder 60 – Guitar
Folder 61 – Jazz
Folder 62 – Large Ensembles
Folder 63 – Music Education
Folder 64 – Music History
Folder 65 – Percussion
Folder 66 – Performance of Early Music (PEM)
Folder 67 – Strings
Folder 68 – Theory
Folder 69 – Third Stream
Folder 70 – Winds

Series 4: Subject Files

Folder 71 – Band Guide
Folder 72 – Crest Recording Project
Folder 73 – Evian Tour, Orchestra
Folder 74 – Firestone Collection
Folder 75 – Guest Conductor program
Folder 76 – Medium Rare Big Band
Folder 77 – Mission Statement
Folder 78 – Instruments
Folder 79 – Scholarship Ensembles
Folder 80 – WGBH Radio Broadcasts

Series 5: External Files

Folder 81 – Brookline Youth Concerts
Folder 82 – Simmons College