Civic Library Fellowship Alum Q&A: Claudia Restrepo

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. Claudia Restrepo, who was the Civic Library Fellow from 2017 to 2019, reflects on her experience in the program in the following Q&A.

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

While I was still the Civic Library Fellow, I worked briefly (during the summer break) with the National Symphony Orchestra as assistant librarian. The following summer, immediately after finishing the fellowship program, I was the head librarian for the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2019. During that time, I applied and was offered a position with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, as DSO and training programs librarian, and I held this position for two full seasons.

I was then contacted by the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera (as I was declared a qualified runner after their audition) to serve as their librarian, and I became a tenured musician of the orchestra in September of 2022. I worked with the USUO for three seasons.

I just started my new position with the New York Philharmonic as assistant principal librarian after winning the audition this past April. I currently also serve as principal librarian for SPHINX, a social justice organization dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts.

How has the Civic Library Fellowship impacted your career?

I started my position with the Civic Orchestra right after completing the Tanglewood library fellowship, and by being my first ’real job’ as an orchestra librarian, this was truly a defining moment in my career. It was thanks to the fellowship with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago that I was trained and mentored by the librarians of the Chicago Symphony to hold the highest standards of music preparation and to continue improving my craft.

My first concert as the Civic librarian was a tour to New Castle, Indiana, with Yo-Yo Ma as soloist, and I knew right then and there that being an orchestra librarian for a major orchestra was what I wanted to pursue as my career. During my time in Chicago, I also had frequent exposure to and direct contact with some of the most prominent conductors that guest conducted both Civic and the CSO. Additionally, by being afforded the rare opportunity of being substitute librarian for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, that opened many doors in my career path and has, until this day, served as an inspiration for what I do in my daily tasks. I will be eternally grateful to the Civic Fellowship and all the opportunities that it provided.