Eastman to house Kurt Weill archives

The collection, which will be maintained at the Eastman School's Sibley Music Library, includes the manuscripts of such works as The Three Penny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper), containing Weill's memorable "Mack the Knife," along with The Rise and Fall of Mahagonny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny). The archive will be placed on indefinite loan effective immediately, enabling editors and scholars to complete work on the Kurt Weill Edition, jointly published by The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and European American Music Corporation.

Kurt Weill (1900-1950) was born in Dessau, Germany, and is best known as a composer of operas in collaboration with author Bertolt Brecht. He and his wife, actress and singer Lotte Lenya, emigrated during the Nazi regime, eventually to the United States, where he succeeded in writing such American musicals as Lady in the Dark, Street Scene and Lost in the Stars.

"The Eastman School of Music, with its state-of-the-art Sibley Music Library, offers an extraordinarily active environment for the promotion of Kurt Weill's music, both in terms of scholarship and performance," said Robert Thompson of Universal Edition.

In fact, Eastman has become a significant center for Weill research. Three faculty members are editing volumes of the Kurt Weill Edition, several dissertations have been completed or are under way by doctoral students, and the school already has mounted a number of performances of Weill's stage works, said Professor of Musicology Kim Kowalke, who also is a prominent Weill scholar and president of The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music in New York City. The Eastman School is planning a variety of events next fall to celebrate the loan of these manuscripts.