More than 100 compact disks featuring interviews and profiles of famous musicians have been given to the State University College at Oneonta for use in a new audio-documentary minor, a professor said Monday.
SUCO students listened to some of the disks, donated by London-based radio documentary producer Jon Tolansky, and applied techniques to their own projects in a course offered for the first time this semester, said Gayane Torosyan, assistant professor in the communication arts department.
The archive disks feature profiles and interviews of classical musicians including Maria Callas, Jose Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti, Leonard Bernstein, Arturo Toscanini, Renee Fleming and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Torosyan said she and a student helped with recording equipment during a telephone interview, during which Tolansky talked with local jazz musician Al Gallodoro about performing with Toscanini.
The professor and producer continued discussions about the college's new minor, and the gift was made.
A SUCO faculty grant helped with shipping and cataloging costs, Torosyan said, and each time a shipment arrived, she opened it and started listening, then shared the material in her classes.
``It was exciting,'' she said.
Some of the students were impressed with the disks and subjects, and some were intimidated, she said. But by semester's end this month, they had analyzed the documentaries and applied them to their projects, some of which were presented Monday.
``I felt that they learned a lot,'' Torosyan said. ``They were eager to share.''
The student documentaries were about personal experiences, campus life or interviews, she said, and some will be broadcast on WUOW, Oneonta Community Radio at 104.7 FM.
Torosyan, who has worked as a producer and host on public radio, joined SUCO in August 2005.
Tolansky's collection will be digitized with the support of a grant from the SUCO Teaching and Learning Technology Center, and she will create a website containing the documentaries and segments of her interviews with the author about the creative process. She plans to use the materials in her course and to make them available for research and teaching.
Tolansky's collection contains musicians speaking in detail about their lives and careers.
The conversations have been recorded for documentary profiles for major radio stations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Tolansky described the contribution and archiving of his works as an enlightened cooperation'' between SUCO and the radio networks.
In a media release from the college, he said, ``These programs and their wealth of insights from renowned performing artists are now being preserved for proactive study in the secure and controlled conditions on the SUNY Oneonta campus.''
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