What does an orchestra librarian do?

Dedicated to Gary Corrin, Salute to Vienna’s founding principal librarian, and Ingrid Martin, who has kept the torch burning.

The sweeping strings, singing sopranos, and swirling dancers at Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert may perform so seamlessly that you don’t give a second thought to how the celebration of music and song came together. Many concert patrons have no idea that an orchestra librarian has worked quietly and fastidiously behind the scenes to ensure the whole programme plays out like magic.

Here’s a look at what our music librarians do to bring each Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert to the stage.

What does an orchestra librarian do?

Behind every beautiful piece of orchestra music is a librarian. Leading up to showtime, this librarian preps, packs, and ships music to every single Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert musician across North America. The sheets of music that perch atop the on-stage stands are there thanks to the hard work of a librarian, who has pored over each part in detail, ensuring it matches up with what the dancers have rehearsed and what the singers are ready to sing.

Is a music librarian the same as a “book” librarian?

Not quite. There are similarities when it comes to acquiring, organizing, and maintaining their materials. But can you imagine your local library’s librarian having to copyedit novels and proofread reference books? An orchestra librarian must double-check that every musical part is accurate, legible, and tailored to the needs of each specific performance. They collaborate with the conductor on key changes, cuts, and markings, and work to match the conductor’s vision before distributing the sheet music to all the musicians.

If these are classic and beloved pieces of music, why would changes need to be made?

Bowings are added (directions to the string players so they move their bows up and down in sync with each other) and repeats are chosen (some singers will choose to perform more verses than others). Every change has to be made in every single part and in the conductor’s score to keep rehearsals and performances running smoothly.

What happens if musicians don’t have matching sheet music?

In short: the music may sound very, very bad. One of our Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert librarians recalls a time there was a last-minute song swap in the programme. The publisher couriered the parts overnight and miraculously got them to the musicians in time for the first rehearsal.

But before the sigh of relief had been fully breathed, the conductor raised his baton, the orchestra played its first note, and it was absolutely "out-of-tune middle-school-band" awful.

The publisher had mistakenly sent half the orchestra parts in E Major and half in E-flat Major. If you’re a musician, you’re likely cringing. If you’re not a musician: this would be like making cupcakes and substituting half the sugar for salt. Sure, salt and sugar are fine on their own, but when you expect one, you don’t want the other!  

In this case, the librarians had to act fast to fix the parts before the night’s performance. They raced backstage and spent an hour transposing every single mismatched note by hand.

The show must go on, but sometimes singers or musicians get sick. Can a replacement hop in without any issue?

If a violinist gets sick, a substitute can typically step in without issue. But if a singer gets sick… yikes.

And of course this happens. We fly a singer in from Europe, they rehearse, and then… a dreaded cold kicks in. As their voice is their instrument, a singer needs to be able to safely and successfully hit all the notes to perform. In such a case, our first step is to scramble to find a singer who already knows the repertoire. If that search fails, our repertoire must be updated to match that of the replacement singer.

That’s when our librarians leap into action, sourcing alternate music, marking up more than 50 orchestral parts to match the new singer’s version, and getting the updated music onto the music stands by the start of rehearsal.

As your Salute to Vienna New Year’s Concert wraps up with a performance of Auld Lang Syne, consider that part of a librarian’s job is essentially to “be forgot and never brought to mind.” A flawless performance with perfectly executed numbers means the librarian has done their job, and they will be there, unseen in the wings, quietly celebrating their success—and the new year—along with you.