Music Playlists
Listen to a streaming playlist from Freegal Music, Naxos Music Library, Naxos Jazz Music Library, Hoopla or Music Online from Alexander Street free with your library card. Alexander Street will ask for an academic institution, use Glendale Public Library.
Get a free Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Library eCard instantaneously. It can be used to access online resources including eBooks, eAudiobooks, eNewspapers, eMagazines, online classes, online tutoring, and learning games, as well as streaming movies and music, and more.
Today's recommending listening is the soundtrack from Soul, Dynamite by BTS, Shemekia Copeland, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Learn About Music
Stories behind the Songs is a fun series from British publisher Carlton Books. Brand Library owns six volumes in the series: Radiohead, the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.
Oxford Music Online includes the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Oxford Dictionary of Music and the Oxford Companion to Music. It is the world’s premier online music encyclopedia, offering comprehensive coverage of music, musicians, music-making, and music scholarship. Check out this article on McCoy Tyner.
Streaming Music
KCRW, a National Public Radio member here in Los Angeles, has their year end best of playlists posted on their website.
Playbill updated their list of upcoming free livestream theater and music broadcasts including productions of Peter Pan, Romeo and Juliet and many others.
Online Art Exhibits
Brand Gallery & ReflectSpace presented a wide range of virtual exhibits during 2020. Here are a few highlights:
We welcomed Dan McCleary, founder of Art Division, as the juror for Brand 48, our 48th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper. Brand 48 is organized by the Associates of Brand Library & Art Center, an all-volunteer non-profit that raises funds to support the extensive free and public events offered at Brand.
Borders: Artists Consider the Armeno-Turkish Divide took a critical look at the aftermath of war and dislocation and its long-term effects on people and landscape.
DispLAced: Communities Beneath Dodger Stadium reflected on the bitter history and contemporary legacy of the displacement of the Mexican-American communities of Chavez Ravine.
NEXUS III, in partnership with Thinkspace Projects, showcased international artists belonging to the New Contemporary Art Movement.
Nowhere and Everywhere: Indigenous in America investigated the myriad ways in which Native Americans are represented and misrepresented, including imagery of the California Mission System.
2020 Brand Library Staff Favorites
Here are some of the things we have been reading, watching and listening to this year!
Art books to inspire you:
Art books to help you get started or keep going:
Great films - inspiring, creative or just fun:
Great books that have inspired some great music!
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami is a fantastic read. It's three novels in one volume. This novel and Kafka on the Shore served as inspiration for the K-pop band BTS.
BTS has great deal of literary reference in their work including Hermann Hesse, James R. Doty, Ursula K. Le Guin, Murray Stein and many more.
The Little Prince is an all-time favorite; the story and illustrations work together so well. An inspiration for Love Yourself by BTS, and the prog rock band Riverside.
Regina Spektor refers to Le Petit Prince in Begin to Hope. Her work is inspired by Edith Wharton, Shakespeare, Ilf & Petrov, Sophocles, and Boris Pasternak.
Music and radio shows we have been listening to:
Classical recordings released in 2020 - not to miss!
For the end of the year, here are four classical albums from 2020 that are well worth listening to.
Yo-Yo-Ma and Kathryn Stott’s Songs of Comfort and Joy was released December 11 and is much needed in this pandemic year. Arrangements of Amazing Grace, Goin’ Home, Over The Rainbow and other well known classics will bring much joy.
Pianist Frederik Ullen’s sixth volume of Sorabji’s Transcendental Studies was released on December 4 and includes Studies 84-100. These virtuoso studies contain a wealth of amazing musical ideas.
On Beethoven’s birthday, December 17, Deutsch Grammophon released a fantastic new recording of pianist Krystian Zimerman performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle conducting.
Michael Torke’s music is always bright, rhythmic and optimistic and clearly needed in these sad times. He wrote Being in 2019 which is a 43 minute work for large chamber ensemble. This recording by the American Modern Ensemble with the composer conducting was released on August 14, 2020.
Covid-19 Resources
Reliable information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) is available from the World Health Organization, the California Department of Public Health, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, the City of Glendale, and the Library, Arts & Culture department.
Resources for Music Businesses And Industry Workers, Playing for Change, Sounding Point LA
Resources for Freelance Artists, California Arts Council, Americans for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts