CSO’s librarians serve as important mentors for their Civic counterparts

Just as the Civic Orchestra of Chicago provides pre-professional training for its musicians, the same is true for the ensemble’s Civic Library Fellows, who gain valuable experience they can apply toward becoming orchestra librarians.

Helping and mentoring the Fellows along the way are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s three staff librarians, among the most respected in their field: Carole Keller, Mark Swanson and Justin Vibbard.

“We basically have an open-door policy,” Keller said. “They can come in and ask us whatever they want, ask for advice on how to do something, just anything they need in term of their skills or overall knowledge. It really depends on the Civic librarians themselves — what they want or need.”

The success of the 25-year-old fellowship program can be measured by the achievements of its alumni, who have gone on to serve as librarians for prestigious institutions such as the National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera and Sphinx Organization.

Perhaps the biggest testament to the program’s effectiveness was the September 2023 hiring of Vibbard, the first-ever Civic Library Fellow, as the CSO’s principal librarian — a kind of full-circle moment for both him and the program.

“It’s very gratifying to see these folks come through and see them to succeed,” said Mark Swanson, who became a full-fledged member of the library staff in 1999 after earlier stints there in part-time and interim positions. “We want them to succeed in whatever they do. If they decide to go on with it, we want to see that happen. If they decide not to, that’s perfectly OK, too.”

Caroline Eichler, for example, who served as a Civic Library Fellow from 2013 through 2016, moved into artistic administration and now serves as the CSO’s senior artist liaison, overseeing travel and accommodations for visiting performers and practical matters such as fees and visas.

Whether for the Civic Orchestra or CSO, the tasks of the librarians include finding and acquiring scores, preparing the musical parts for performances by correcting errors, formatting them for ease of use and inserting bowing markings and then distributing those parts to musicians.

One Civic Library Fellow is engaged per season, and that individual can stay in the role up to three years. Applicants must undergo an “audition” process that includes a written test and interviews with the three CSO librarians and the Civic Orchestra manager Anna Perkins.

The test covers such areas as standard orchestral repertoire and musical terms, as well as practical library skills. “We don’t know everything,” Swanson said. “There is no way to know everything, but you’ve got to be kind of a detective. So we kind of test their detective skills as well, to see how they think outside of the box.”

Applicants come from a multitude of backgrounds, some having worked, for example, for a college band or orchestra library, and they have varied levels of experience. “Over the years, the talent pool has just really skyrocketed,” Swanson said. “There are a lot of really talented young people out there who are interested in this sort of thing.”

After the Civic Library Fellow is chosen, he or she is expected to function independently, sharing a space on the lower level of Symphony Center that houses the libraries of both the Civic Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Chorus.

“We’re right around the corner from the Civic library, and they [Library Fellows] can come in any time and watch us and observe what we’re doing and ask questions if they have questions,“ Swanson said. ”And we show them some of the practical, hands-on things that they don’t know.”

Some of the questions can be about broader issues. Others are more detailed. Vibbard recently reminded Keller that when he was a Fellow, he asked how to draw a smart-looking quarter rest on a musical part. “We do a lot hand work,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to correct it digitally if it’s one little thing.” Her answer to him? Follow a visual guide and practice, practice, practice.

Some of the Civic Library Fellows will even spend a day or part of day each week working in the CSO library so they can see up close how the three librarians collaborate and really get a feel for how it functions. Others are much are more independent and tend to stick to themselves.

According to Keller, each of three of three CSO librarians has a different style when it comes to mentoring the Civic Library Fellows. Vibbard, for example, she said, is very “hands-on, detailed and specific.”

For her, it’s important to give the Fellows options. She wants to be sure they know there are often multiple ways to achieve the same end. She tells them: “You need to take this opportunity to experiment a little and find out what works best for you.”