Centre for Black Music Research (Columbia College)

Founded in 1990, Centre for Black Music Research (CBMR) is a collection covering African-American music and the African diaspora. The collections include books, periodicals, sound recordings in several formats, printed music, photographs and videotapes, manuscripts and archival materials and a comprehensive collection of theses and dissertations on black music.

It opened to the public in 1992 and currently holds more than 5 400 catalogued books and dissertations. It also has 11 000 sound recordings in all formats, 4 500 scores and sheet music and 72 archival collections including personal papers or organizational records. The records contain research materials, published and unpublished music scores, manuscripts and typescripts, audio-visual recordings, paper-based and photographic materials, ephemera, publications and oral-history interviews. The CBMR Library and Archives also holds several ethnographic collections, including three from documentary filmmakers and two containing music bows from Africa.

The centre organizes national and international conferences on ‘Black Music Research’: It has also held some conferences in Chicago, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, New York, New Orleans and Trinidad and Tobago. Some of these conferences have been held jointly with other organizations such as the American Musicological Society, The College Music Society, the Society for American Music and the Society for Ethnomusicology.

The centre opens from Monday to Friday at 09h00am until 17h00pm during the American academic year and during summer is opened from Monday to Friday at 10h00am until 16h00pm.