Oral History of American Music

Oral History of American Music Libby Van Cleve, Director

Oral History of American Music (OHAM) at Yale University is the preeminent project in the field of music dedicated to the collection and preservation of oral and video memoirs in the voices of the creative musicians of our time. Please visit our website for a complete list of interviews in the OHAM archive, and contact us you're interested in accessing transcripts for academic purposes!


Now available to stream online is OHAM’s interview with Chicago-born gospel musician and choir director Mark Hubbard. Hu...
05/29/2026

Now available to stream online is OHAM’s interview with Chicago-born gospel musician and choir director Mark Hubbard. Hubbard, whose love of sacred music and gospel was inspired at an early age by his mother, has enjoyed a highly decorated career in recording and performance, including multiple awards and international performances. His choir, Mark Hubbard and the Voices, have shared the stage with prominent artists including Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Richard Smallwood, in addition to releasing numerous albums.

OHAM’s interview with Mark Hubbard is available to stream at the following link as part of our Music and the Black Church collection: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/3968515

OHAM’s interview with legendary educator and choral conductor Joyce Garrett is now available to stream as part of OHAM’s...
05/22/2026

OHAM’s interview with legendary educator and choral conductor Joyce Garrett is now available to stream as part of OHAM’s Music and the Black Church collection. A North Carolina native educated at Bennett College and The Catholic University, Garrett led the renowned choirs of Washington, DC’s Eastern High School to international acclaim and later founded the Washington Youth Choir. She also served as director of the United States Naval Academy Gospel Choir for over a decade and is the longtime Director of Music and Worship Arts at Alfred Street Baptist Church, and the 2025 recipient of the Roland Carter “Living Legend of Church Music” award.

OHAM’s interview with Joyce Garrett is available to stream at the following link:
https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/3968514

OHAM’s interview with Philadelphia-based organist, educator, and choral director Sheila Booker is now available to strea...
05/16/2026

OHAM’s interview with Philadelphia-based organist, educator, and choral director Sheila Booker is now available to stream as part of OHAM’s Music and the Black Church collection. A graduate of West Chester and Temple Universities, Booker has served as a choral music specialist in the Philadelphia School District, Outreach Coordinator for the Philadelphia Boys Choir, and Music Director within the First Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She is also the longtime director of Sounds of Joy and the 2024 recipient of the Hampton University Ministers Conference’s “Roland M. Carter ‘Living Legend of Church Music’” award.
You can access OHAM’s interview with Sheila Booker at the following link: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/3968513

Now available online is OHAM’s interview with three-time Grammy nominated producer, songwriter, and musician, Berris Bo...
05/07/2026

Now available online is OHAM’s interview with three-time Grammy nominated producer, songwriter, and musician, Berris Bolton. Born in Chicago into a musical family, Bolton has worked with notable artists in multiple genres for nearly three decades, and is the recipient of the 2023 ICON Award. Bolton is also recognized for his unwavering commitment to the community and excellence in the music industry, and is currently the music director at the Progressive Baptist Church of Chicago.
OHAM’s interview with Berris Bolton is available as part of the Music and the Black Church collection, and is available to stream at the following link: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/3968512

The staff at OHAM are greatly saddened to learn of the passing of renowned American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. A v...
04/25/2026

The staff at OHAM are greatly saddened to learn of the passing of renowned American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. A visionary conductor, pianist, and composer, Michael Tilson Thomas’s career included 25 years as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, positions with the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra, founding the New World Symphony, and winning 12 Grammy Awards. Beyond these artistic achievements, he was one of classical music’s great ambassadors—mentoring generations of young musicians and bringing orchestral music to wider audiences through imaginative programming, education, television, and public outreach.
OHAM is very fortunate to hold three interviews with Michael Tilson Thomas in our collections. Two from 1994 and 1986 are in the Major Figures in American Music collection, and another from 2001 is in the NewMusicBox Interviews collection. These interviews are accessible at the following links: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/3352774 (NewMusicBox)
https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/3184043 (Major Figures)

After 33 remarkable years, we celebrate the retirement of Dr. Libby Van Cleve, Director of the Oral History of American ...
03/16/2026

After 33 remarkable years, we celebrate the retirement of Dr. Libby Van Cleve, Director of the Oral History of American Music. Under her leadership, OHAM expanded its jazz interviewing, launched its graduate composition student interviewing project, and oversaw OHAM’s acquisition of the NewMusicBox interviews. One of her proudest accomplishments during her tenure has been the establishment of OHAM’s Music and the Black Church collection, a collaborative project with Braxton Shelley, Director of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music’s Interdisciplinary Program in Music and the Black Church, which has facilitated dozens of interviews with major Gospel figures. Another major milestone during her time as OHAM’s director was the introduction of online streaming, which during its first year saw an increase from 80 to 54,000 annual listeners. Libby also conducted over 150 interviews herself, co-authored with OHAM founder Vivian Perlis "Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington," and shepherded two forthcoming Oxford University Press books drawn from the OHAM archive. We are deeply grateful for her vision, scholarship, and over three decades of dedication to preserving the voices of American music, and wish Libby nothing but the best in her retirement!

Photos and credits:
Image 2: Libby Van Cleve interviewing Christopher Theofanidis
Image 1 & 6 taken by Paul Duda
Image 3: Libby Van Cleve with Vivian Perlis and photo of Aaron Copland, taken by Peter Hvizdak
Image 5: Libby Van Cleve with Vivian Perlis, authors photo from "Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington"

The staff at OHAM join the world mourning the loss of composer Bernard Rands. The British-born composer’s career include...
03/06/2026

The staff at OHAM join the world mourning the loss of composer Bernard Rands. The British-born composer’s career includes a catalogue of nearly a hundred published works, as well as a profound legacy as a teacher and mentor. With early mentorship from and collaboration with figures such as Luigi Dallapiccola, Luciano Berio, and Pierre Boulez, Rands’s music evolved from early works of uncompromising complexity to a mature style softened by lyricism and introspection. Some of his major works including the Memo series, the Pulitzer Prize–winning Canti del Sole, the opera Vincent, and numerous concerti and orchestral works.

OHAM is fortunate to hold three interviews with Bernard Rands in our collection, two in the Major Figures in American Music collection and one in the NewMusicBox Interviews collection. The interviews can be accessed at the following links:
NewMusicBox: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/3720679
Major Figures: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/3183929

Photo credits to Grittani Creative (Mike Grittani)

This past Monday, OHAM director Libby Van Cleve and Irving S. Gilmore Music Library director Ruthann McTyre conducted OH...
02/18/2026

This past Monday, OHAM director Libby Van Cleve and Irving S. Gilmore Music Library director Ruthann McTyre conducted OHAM's annual interviews for first-year composition students at the Yale School of Music. This year's featured composers are Nahre Sol, Sebastian Zhang (seen in video demonstrating the asalato), Elise Arancio, Annija Zarina, Chenge Liu, and Hirad Moradi. Also pictured is videographer Shaun Wright.

These interviews will be available in OHAM's Yale Student Composer Interviews collection in the next few months. In the meantime, check out some of the previous interviews in this collection, including with Reena Esmail, Andy Akiho, and Joel Thompson here: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/resources/5478

OHAM’s interview with New Haven-based educator and conductor, Jonathan Q. Berryman, is now available to stream as part o...
02/04/2026

OHAM’s interview with New Haven-based educator and conductor, Jonathan Q. Berryman, is now available to stream as part of OHAM’s Music and the Black Church collection. A Richmond native and graduate of Princeton and Yale Universities, Berryman is the founder and director of the Heritage Chorale of New Haven, and has served as a choral educator, conductor, and Minister of Music at Messiah Baptist Church in Bridgeport. His work in music and education has been recognized by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the New Haven Alumni Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
You can access his interview at the following link: https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/3968511

The staff at OHAM join the world in mourning the loss of gospel legend Richard Smallwood. Smallwood was a trailblazing c...
01/14/2026

The staff at OHAM join the world in mourning the loss of gospel legend Richard Smallwood. Smallwood was a trailblazing composer, pianist, arranger, and singer, whose fusion of traditional gospel with other genres, including classical and blues, set a new standard for contemporary sacred music. A prolific recording artist, Smallwood recorded over fifteen albums with notable tracks including “Total Praise” and “I Love the Lord.” In addition to numerous awards and nominations from organizations including the Grammy, Dove, and Stellar Awards, Smallwood’s career encompassed prolific collaboration with artists from multiple genres, including Aretha Franklin, the Clark Sisters, Lady Tremaine Hawkins, Quincy Jones, and Leontyne Price.

OHAM is fortunate to have had the opportunity to interview Richard Smallwood in 2024, as part of the “Celebrating the Music of Richard Smallwood” event hosted by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in 2024. You can access both OHAM’s video interview with Smallwood, as well as the panel discussion (with Donald Lawrence and Braxton Shelley) for ISM's “Music and Mind” in OHAM’s Major Figures in American Music collection, available to stream here: https://archives.yale.edu/agents/people/101653

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