Arnold Schoenberg Institute: Background

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Founded in December 1973 (about a year prior to the centennial of Schoenberg’s birth) with the donation of Schoenberg’s legacy by his heirs to the University of Southern California, the Arnold Schoenberg Institute housed the world’s most comprehensive collection of material by and about the 20th-century Austrian emigré composer Arnold Schoenberg. The Institute was initially operated as a consortium with support from four southern California institutions--the University of Southern California (providing the physical site and general operating funds), California State University at Los Angeles (providing funding for the Archivist), California Institute of the Arts (providing funding for the Director), and the University of California at Los Angeles (providing funding for publications).

As the result of a legal settlement between the University of Southern California and the Schoenberg heirs on 12 July 1996, the complete legacy, and all other material collected by the Institute in the intervening years, were transferred in 1998 to its new home in the city of Schoenberg’s birth--Vienna. There a new Arnold Schönberg Center Foundation was established on 24 March 1997 to house the collection and to undertake the other activities of the Institute.

Historically, the Institute occupied its own building on the campus of USC. The collection in the Archive of the Institute was open for the use of scholars, researchers, performers, and other interested parties. Also, the Institute published a semi-annual Journal and presented hundreds of concerts, lectures, exhibitions, tours, and other public programs.

During its 25-year existence, the Institute Archive supported the research of thousands of researchers and scholars--hosting an average of 86 on-site researchers per year (whose average stay was 3 days each), and responding to more than 570 off-site requests for information per year (about 200 letters, 150 telephone inquiries, 90 faxes, and 140 e-mails). The Archive also provided hundreds of thousands of pages of photocopies and thousands of photographs (as well as other materials such as books, films, videos, and microfilm) to users over this period of time.

The Friends of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute (1975-1993, whose presidents included: Judith Rosen, Dorothy Crawford, and Gerald Turbow) provided support for the Institute and were active in promoting the Institute through public lectures and other events.

Employees of the Institute included:

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