LibGuides: Performing Arts: Websites

Tiny Desk Concerts

Started in 2008, these recorded 'mini-concerts' are hosted by Bob Boilan of the NPR program, All Songs Considered.

Wikipedia has an extensive concert list of performers and dates.

Online Bibliographies & Encyclopedias

MusRef
MusRef is a site devoted to music and dance bibliography and reference. The site consists of five main features:
1. An online bibliography of music and dance bibliographies and reference sources (both print and online).
2. A blog devoted to music and dance bibliography and reference.
3. Basic introductions to reference tools intended to help students understand how reference sources can guide them to appropriate research materials.
4. Links to unpublished bibliographies.
5. A corresponding Facebook page designed as a forum for interested librarians, scholars, and students.
Oxford Research Encyclopedias
Although predominantly a subscription based service, it also offers a large quantity of free full-text articles.

Online Databases

Library of Congress Performing Arts Database

Chicken by Will Accooe (New York : Howley, Haviland and Co., c1899.). African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920, American Memory, Library of Congress.

The Performing Arts Databases page contains database and catalog resources that are intended to help users with research in the performing arts areas. The databases are stand-alone resources that are not integrated with the rest of the Library’s digital collections or catalogs. In many cases, the databases do not reflect actual holdings of the Library of Congress and are provided only as reference resources.

Internet Broadway Database
Provides a comprehensive database of shows produced on Broadway, including all "title page" information about each production. It also offers historical information about theatres and various statistics and fun facts related to Broadway.
The Internet Archive
A non-profit that is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.
Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Hamm Archives tell the story of the 150+ year history of BAM, and of the communities—civic and artistic—that built the institution.

National Recording Registry

The Library of Congress added new entries on March 24, 2021!

Read about it here

Online Performances

In light of the ongoing situation with COVID-19, some organizations are offering free access to streaming or archived performances.

Folkstreams Folkstreams is a non-profit dedicated to finding, preserving, contextualizing, and showcasing documentary films on American traditional cultures.

The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Watch archived and livestream performances.

The Library of Congress Watch archived performances. Check out a performance by Hubby Jenkins performance on LC's YouTube channel.

OntheBoards.tv is a resource for educators working in dance, art, and performance. (Subscription fee)

Wigmore Hall Watch archived and livestream performances. (Requires creating an account).

Non-Profits

American Society for Theatre Research
The American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) is a U.S.-based professional organization that fosters scholarship on worldwide theatre and performance, both historical and contemporary.
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Houses an extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in the performing arts.
Theater Without Borders
TWB is an informal group of individual artists around the world who are interested in supporting international theatre exchange