Andrea Olmstead (born September 5, 1948) is an American musicologist and historian. Reared in

Grand Forks Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city o ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

, Olmstead studied violin with Burton Kaplan in New York and with Lea Foli at the

Aspen Music Festival The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) is a classical music festival held annually in Aspen, Colorado. It is noted both for its concert programming and the musical training it offers to mostly young-adult music students. Founded in 1949, the ...

; she was a member of the

New York Youth Symphony The New York Youth Symphony (NYYS), founded in 1963, is a tuition-free music organization for the youth in New York City, widely reputed to be one of the best of its kind in the nation and world. Its programs include its flagship Orchestra, Cham ...

and the

National Orchestral Association National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

. She then embarked upon the study of musicology; her instructors included

Gustave Reese Gustave Reese ( ; 29 November 1899 – 7 September 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940) ...

George Perle George Perle (6 May 1915 – 23 January 2009) was an American composer and music theorist. As a composer, his music was largely atonal, using methods similar to the twelve-tone technique of the Second Viennese School. This serialist style, an ...

H. Wiley Hitchcock Hugh Wiley Hitchcock (September 28, 1923 in Detroit, Michigan – December 5, 2007 in New York, New York) was an American musicologist. He is best known for founding the Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College of the City Uni ...

Barry S. Brook Barry Shelley Brook (November 1, 1918, New York City – December 7, 1997, New York City) was an American musicologist.''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Ninth edition,'' edited by Laura Kuhn, New York: Schirmer Books (2001) Educatio ...

James Haar James Haar (July 4, 1929 – September 15, 2018) was an American musicologist and W.R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A specialist in Renaissance music, he was the Editor-in-chief of the ...

, Brian Fennelly, and

Jan LaRue Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

. Her teaching career took her to The

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

, from 1972 until 1980; the Aspen Music School, from 1973 to 1976; the

Boston Conservatory Boston Conservatory at Berklee (formerly The Boston Conservatory) is a private performing arts conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, music, and theater. Boston Conservatory was founded ...

, from 1981 to 2004; the

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on Hu ...

,from 2006 to 2018; and the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, i ...

, from 2009 until 2010. The author of numerous books, she has also produced articles in ''Journal of Musicology'', ''Perspectives of New Music'', ''The Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute'',''Tempo'', ''Musical America'', and ''The Musical Quarterly'', reviews,

program note A concert program is a selection and ordering, or programming, of pieces to be performed at an occasion, or concert. Programs may be influenced by the available ensemble of instruments, by performer ability or skill, by theme (historical, program ...

s, and

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

; she has also given pre-concert lectures and produced CDs. From 2005 until 2007 she was the Christopher Hogwood Research Fellow of the

Handel and Haydn Society The Handel and Haydn Society is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. Known colloquially as 'H+H', the organization has been in continual performance since its founding in 1815, the longest-serving suc ...

Orchestra and Chorus. Olmstead is especially well-regarded for her work on the music of

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. He had initially started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved further towards more complex harmonies and ...

and for her history of The Juilliard School. ''Vincent Persichetti; Grazioso, Grit, and Gold'', was awarded the 2019 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Outstanding Musical Biography. Other honors have included three awards from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, and she has spent time as a visiting scholar at the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...

and as a fellow of the

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) is a residential artist community in Amherst, Virginia, USA. Since 1971, VCCA has offered residencies of varying lengths with flexible scheduling for international artists, writers, and composers at ...

. Olmstead is married to composer

Larry Thomas Bell Larry Thomas Bell (born January 17, 1952) is an American composer, pianist and music professor.Andrea Olmstead, "Larry Thomas Bell", Grove Music Online Education Bell was born in Wilson, North Carolina. He began his music studies with piano less ...

, for whom she adapted the play ''Holy Ghosts'' by Romulus Linney into an opera libretto; in 2009 she produced its premiere in Boston. Olmstead's papers are held by the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

, to which she donated them in 2013.

Publications

*Roger Sessions and His Music (UMI Research Press, 1985). *Conversations with Roger Sessions (Northeastern University Press, 1987). *The Correspondence of Roger Sessions (Northeastern, 1992). *Juilliard: A History (University of Illinois Press, 1999). *Roger Sessions: A Biography (Routledge, 2007). *Who Was F. Scott Fitzgerald's Daisy? (ebook, 2012). *Vincent Persichetti: Grazioso, Grit, and Gold (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).

References

{{Authority control 1948 births Living people American women musicologists 20th-century American musicologists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American musicologists 21st-century American women writers Juilliard School faculty Aspen Music Festival and School faculty Boston Conservatory at Berklee faculty New England Conservatory faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty