Miriam Kartch Mannes College of Music administrative files
Online Access
Available digital items: https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/collections/MA010201
Abstract
Miriam Kartch (1924-) was a longtime faculty member of Mannes School of Music, starting under Clara Damrosch Mannes in 1945 and retiring in 2015. This collection consists of administrative documents and notes from Kartch’s tenure at Mannes, most dating from the 1970s to 1990s.
Dates
- 1948-1996
- Majority of material found within 1978-1996
Creator
- Kartch, Miriam (Person)
- Mannes College The New School for Music (Organization)
Extent
0.8 Cubic Feet (2 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains administrative documents and notes from Miriam Kartch’s tenure at Mannes School of Music, 1945-2015. Most documents in this collection date from the 1970s to the 1990s. The collection does not include records resulting from Kartch’s tenure as the director of the Preparatory Division of the school, 1961-1975.
The collection is divided into two series. The first series, Administrative, 1948-1996, contains faculty meeting minutes and communications between the administration and the faculty, as well as notes and administrative documents regarding the work of the Board of Trustees and its fundraising body, the Development Committee, 1982-1983 (Kartch was a member of the Development Committee and a regular Board of Trustees meetings faculty guest during that year). The series also contains preparatory notes taken by Kartch on behalf of Mannes faculty and minutes of the meeting with New School President Jonathan Fanton to discuss the merger of Mannes College of Music and The New School, February 18th, 1988.
The second series, Board of Trustees dispute, 1964-1979 (bulk 1978-1979), chronicles the conflict between the Board of Trustees and the faculty regarding structural and curricular changes and proposed mergers from Kartch’s perspective, who as part of the faculty, opposed the changes. It contains Kartch’s handwritten log documenting day-to-day events during this controversial period, notes, affidavits and documents in preparation for the hearing of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, as well as faculty meetings minutes, press clippings and press material, petitions, and documents regarding the legal representation of the faculty. The series also contains a folder with information about the accumulated income of fired faculty members, compiled by Kartch for the attorneys. The notes in this series start in February 1978, with the resignation of Craig D. Burrell as chairman of the Board of Trustees, and the resignation of Risë Stevens as president of Mannes College of Music, only a few days apart.
Additional information about the Board of Trustees dispute can be found in the Mannes College administrative records collection (MA.01.01.01) finding aid historical note: https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/320
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research use. Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment.
Use Restrictions
To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the New School Archives and Special Collections. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.
Biographical Note
Miriam Kartch (born May 24, 1924) is a piano technique and music teacher. Her professional studies in piano began in 1941 with Rosalyn Tureck at The Mannes Music School. In the last year of her studies Kartch took a course in piano pedagogy and taught a class of young students, which Clara Mannes observed and was impressed enough to offer Kartch a position on the piano faculty. Kartch began teaching at Mannes in 1945, after receiving her diploma. From 1955 to 1961, she also served as Assistant to the Director of the Preparatory Division of Mannes, formed in 1953 for the music education of primary and secondary school age students, and in 1961 she became the Director of the Preparatory Division, a position she held until 1975. As head of the Mannes Preparatory Division, Kartch developed a recruitment program for talented children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. During her tenure, enrollment in the Preparatory Division increased from 157 students to 410.
In 1962, after the sudden death of her fiancé, she enrolled in the Bachelor’s program at Columbia University School of General Studies, studying part-time while working at Mannes and receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970. She continued to study at Columbia, receiving a MA degree in 1977 and a master of philosophy degree in musicology in 1980, while also teaching piano and music humanities as an Associate in Music at Columbia from 1971 to 1981. In 1979, Kartch married noted physicist Vernon Hughes, who was a piano student of Kartch’s in the Mannes Extension Division for adult/non-diploma studies in the 1950s.
After her leadership of the Preparatory Division of Mannes ended in 1975, Kartch remained on the Mannes faculty until 2015, teaching piano courses for non-majors and lessons for theory majors, as well as music history courses in the Extension Division.
References:
David Ames, “Meet the Faculty: Miriam Kartch,” Mannes News 12, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 13, https://digitalarchives.library.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050601_Musings_2008sp.
Course Catalogs, “Mannes College of Music,” College of Performing Arts Course Catalog Collection, 1916-2006, The New School Archives Digital Collections, New York, New York.
“Mannes Provides Opportunities for Ghetto Children,” Notes from Mannes 4, no. 1 (December 1970): 1-2, https://digitalarchives.library.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050601_MannesNotes_197012.
Allison Scola, “Miriam Kartch's '70 Several Lives.” Columbia University School of General Studies: The General View, last modified January 19, 2015, accessed March 27, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20190622155104/https://gs.columbia.edu/news-general?article=miriam-kartch.
Allison Scola, “Miriam Kartch ’70,” The Owl: the Alumni Magazine of Columbia University School of General Studies (2014): 39, https://issuu.com/columbiags/docs/columbia-gs-owl-magazine-2014.
Arrangement
Arranged by subject in 2 series: 1. Administrative; 2. Board of Trustees Dispute. Materials are arranged alphabetically within the series.
Custodial History
The provenance of these files is unknown.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Transferred from the Harry Scherman Library of Mannes College to the New School Archives, 2015.
Processing Information
Processed by Agnes Szanyi. All file titles supplied during processing.
- Administrative records (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Conservatories of music (Subject) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Manhattan School of Music (New York, N.Y.)
- Mannes College The New School for Music
- Minutes (Type of Material) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Music -- Instruction and study -- United States (Subject) (Places) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Universities and colleges -- New York (State) -- New York (Subject) (Places) Subject Source: Local sources
- Universities and colleges -- United States -- Administration (Subject) (Places) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Guide to the Miriam Kartch Mannes College of Music administrative files
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Jason Adamo, Agnes Szanyi and New School Archives and Special Collections Staff
- Date
- May 23, 2022
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin