This will be posted to ARSC website soon, but please feel free to forward around to anyone 
interested.

ARSC New York Chapter
MARCH 2015 Meeting

7 P. M. Thursday, 3/26/15
at the CUNY Sonic Arts Center
West 140th Street & Convent Avenue, New York
or enter at 138th Street off Convent Avenue
Shepard Hall (the Gothic building) - Recital Hall  (Room 95, Basement level)
An elevator is located in the center of the building

The Unknown Nadia Boulanger: Recordings from The Crane School of Music Archives
Presented by Gary A. Galo Audio Engineer Emeritus

The renowned teacher and conductor Nadia Boulanger had a long association with The Crane School of 
Music at SUNY Potsdam, beginning in the summer of 1925 when Helen M. Hosmer, a faculty member and 
future director of the school, traveled to Fontainbleau for a summer of study in France with Mlle. 
Boulanger. A friendship that would last over half a century developed between them, and during the 
course of that time Boulanger appeared as guest conductor of Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony 
Orchestra at SUNY Potsdam four times, in 1939, 1945, 1958 and 1962. Crane Chorus also traveled to 
New York City in April, 1941 for a special benefit concert for the Polish Relief given in honor of 
Ignace Jan Paderewski. For the New York concert, members of the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of 
New York and fifteen distinguished soloists joined Boulanger and Crane Chorus.

Boulanger made a relatively small number of commercial recordings, and the archives of The Crane 
School contain a number of works not otherwise found in her discography, much of it reflecting her 
interest in 20th-century composers. This presentation will sample those recordings, beginning with 
an excerpt from a 1939 performance of Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem, recorded on 16-inch lacquer 
discs. The 1941 Polish Relief Concert was recorded on five 16-inch, 33 1/3-rpm lacquer discs by the 
Carnegie Hall Recording Company. The repertoire on that concert included the complete History of the 
Resurrection of Jesus Christ by Heinrich Schütz, "Fac me tecum pie flere" from the Stabat Mater by 
20th-century Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, and the 14th century Polish chant Bogurodzica 
Dziewica, in a polyphonic setting probably done by Boulanger. The Requiem of Gabriel Fauré, a staple 
of the Boulanger repertoire, concluded the concert. Excerpts from her 1958 appearance will include 
Vielle Prière Bouddhique by her sister Lili, and Hymne Olympique by the Polish composer Michal 
Spisak. Excerpts from the 1962 concert will include Cantate by Igor Markevitch, the motet Sequentia 
de Vergina Maria by Hungarian composer Láslo Lajthe, Gloria by Poulenc, and Cantate by Corsican-born 
Leo Preger, the latter a commission by The Crane School on the recommendation of Mlle. Boulanger.

This presentation will combine expanded versions of two papers previously presented at ARSC national 
conferences:  Nadia Boulanger: The Polish Relief Benefit Concert given in Milwaukee, WI in 2007, and 
The Unknown Nadia Boulanger: Recordings from The Crane School of Music Archives given in Kansas 
City, MO in 2014.

Gary A. Galo retired in June 2014 after thirty-eight years as Audio Engineer at The Crane School of 
Music, SUNY Potsdam, where he also taught courses in music literature and audio technology. He has 
been an ARSC member since 1982, was the Sound Recording Review Editor of the ARSC Journal from 
1995-2012, was co-chair of the ARSC Technical Committee from 1996-2004, has been a frequent 
presenter at ARSC Conferences, and has written numerous articles, book reviews and sound recording 
reviews for the ARSC Journal. Mr. Galo is a widely published author with over three hundred articles 
and reviews to his credit on both musical and technical subjects, in over a dozen publications. He 
is a Regular Contributor to audioXpress magazine, has reviewed numerous books for Notes: Quarterly 
Journal of the Music Library Association, is the author of the "Loudspeaker" entry in The 
Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound in the United States, 1st edition, and has also written for the 
Newsletter of the Wilhelm Furtwängler Society of America, and Toccata: Journal of the Leopold 
Stokowski Society.

DIRECTIONS TO THE SONIC ARTS CENTER
Subway: Take the 1 train to 137th Street City College and walk north to 140th St. & Broadway,
then go east to 140th St. & Convent Avenue. Take the A, B, C, or D trains to 145th St, go south on 
St. Nicholas to 141st St, (one long block), then west one block to Convent Avenue, and south one 
more block to 140th & Convent Avenue.
Bus: M4 and M5 on Broadway; M 100, 101 on Amsterdam Ave. (one block West of Convent Avenue)

The Sonic Arts Center at CCNY offers 4-year Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Music with a 
concentration in Music and Audio Technology. Their program provides an in-depth curriculum 
emphasizing real-world skills with a project-based approach. Students enjoy a well-rounded program, 
with emphasis on audio technology, music theory, orchestration, and history to help them compete in 
a field that today demands an ever-growing and highly diverse skill set.


All ARSC NY Chapter meetings are free and open to the public. Voluntary contributions to help defray 
our expenses are welcome!