Civic Library Fellowship Alum Q&A: Zen Stokdyk

Founded in 2000, the Civic Library Fellowship offers aspiring orchestra librarians up to three years of professional development. Fellows benefit from the mentorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra librarians, and the role comes with the full responsibility of serving as the Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s librarian.

Among other duties, an orchestra librarian researches publishers and editions, purchases or rents scores as needed, communicates with conductors and soloists, checks parts for publishing errors, hand-marks bowings for string players, makes sure that each player’s part is organized in the same way, distributes the music, marks any changes made during rehearsals and sets the conductor’s scores onstage during concerts.

Alumni of the Civic Library Fellowship have gone on to work for prominent orchestras and performing arts organizations across the United States. Alum Zen Stokdyk reflects on their experience in the program in the following Q&A.

Which season(s) were you a Civic Library Fellow?

I was the Civic Library Fellow from the fall of 2008 through the spring of 2011. This overlapped with my time as a Civic bassoonist from 2008 to 2010.

Could you describe your career path since your Civic Library Fellowship?

After I left the Civic Library, I was a freelance librarian and bassoonist in and around Chicago. My main library jobs were for the Chicago Philharmonic, Joffrey Ballet, Camerata Chicago and the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW series. I also continued a prior role as Cliff Colnot’s personal librarian. In early 2012, I became the orchestra librarian at Northwestern University, where I stayed until I won my current position at the National Symphony Orchestra in 2016. I recently finished my eighth season as the associate librarian at the NSO.

How has the Civic Library Fellowship impacted your career?

I am certain that I wouldn’t hold my position at the NSO without the training I received at the Civic Orchestra. I received great mentorship from the CSO librarians about how to approach the Civic Library and the work that needed to be done for the orchestra, but also had enough independence to learn through trial and error and to see what worked best. I was able to hone my strengths and learn a lot about my weaknesses, while having amazing help and advice right down the hall! I also gained another level of insight about library processes by being a bassoonist in the orchestra for the first two years of my library fellowship — sitting in rehearsal while hearing and seeing everything I had worked on in the library was deeply meaningful. That part of the experience and seeing the importance of good librarianship first-hand still sticks with me today.