Libby Van Cleve

Libby Van Cleve is a scholar and performer with a specialty in contemporary American music. As Director of the Oral History of American Music Archive (OHAM) at Yale University, she has conducted numerous interviews with major figures in American music. She is the author of various articles, program notes, and liner notes, which are often generated by material from her interviews. Along with OHAM's founder, Vivian Perlis, she is co-author of the award-winning book and CD publication Composers Voices from Ives to Ellington, Yale University Press. Using materials from the archive, Van Cleve co-produced podcasts on Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and Virgil Thomson. She has served as Principal Investigator for many funding initiatives including OHAM's prestigious Save Americas Treasures grant; OHAM's endowment, funded by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.; and several grants to support digitization of OHAM's materials from The Grammy Foundation, The Amphion Foundation, The Virgil Thomson Foundation, and others. Complementing her work at OHAM, Ms. Van Cleve is recognized as one of the foremost interpreters of contemporary and chamber music for the oboe. She has recorded dozens of CDs and is author of Oboe Unbound: Contemporary Techniques, Rowman and Littlefield. Van Cleve received her DMA from Yale School of Music, her MFA from California Institute of the Arts, and her BA, Magna cum Laude, from Bowdoin College. She serves as adjunct faculty at Wesleyan University and Connecticut College.