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The Vera Bradford Collection: A Digitisation Project

conference contribution
posted on 2019-10-04, 02:37 authored by Irene GuidottiIrene Guidotti
International Association of Music Libraries, Archives & Documentation Centres (Australian Chapter) Conference Melbourne 2019

The Vera Bradford Collection: A Digitisation Project

Vera Bradford (1904-2004) was a celebrated Australian pianist, and contributed much to Australian music as a performer, a teacher and a promoter of Australian composers. She won a scholarship to study with Percy Grainger in Chicago, gave the first Australian performance of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto and was the first woman to perform the Brahms D minor Piano Concerto in Australia.

Vera Bradford donated her music collection to the State College of Victoria in 1978, which later became Monash University Library’s Peninsula branch. The collection was named the Vera Bradford Music Collection and contains books on the history of music, scores and sheet music, librettos, and orchestral sets. The collection has continued to grow, with donations from local Peninsula music groups, Defence Force Bands and other materials purchased by the State College of Victoria.

In 2018 Monash University Library commenced reordering and digitising the Vera Bradford Collection, comprising scores donated by the pianist in 1978 as well as donations from individuals and musical groups in the Frankston area to make these items available to the wider research community and general public.

This short talk outlined the digitisation plan and processes involved, touching upon the constraints, the solutions adopted, and the opportunities to make these valuable and unique items more accessible to students and researchers, and thereby contribute to making Vera Bradford better known to the worldwide community.

I coordinated the project since 2017 and it is still ongoing.

The Vera Bradford Collection online: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.1/1404337

History