Vivian Perlis

Vivian Perlis (April 26, 1928 – July 4, 2019) was an American musicologist and the founder and former director of Yale University's Oral History of American Music.

Personal life Vivian Perlis was born in Brooklyn, New York. After growing up in Long Island, N.Y., she attended the University of Michigan, studying classical harp and piano. In addition to her bachelor's degree, she earned a master's degree in music history at the University of Michigan (BM 1949, MM 1952). She was also an enrolled as a doctoral student at Columbia University between 1962 and 1964. She died on July 4, 2019, at the age of 91.

Oral history career As a music librarian for Yale, Perlis worked with The Charles Ives Papers. In 1968, she had an opportunity to interview the elderly Julian Myrick, Ives’ insurance business partner. Recognizing the profound usefulness of recorded memories such as these, Perlis began collecting interviews with other acquaintances of Charles Ives. These amounted to sixty-two tapes and transcripts. In 1975, the book won the American Musicological Society's Otto Kinkeldey Award, their most prestigious book award. Perlis was the first female recipient, and this was the first time the award was given for an American musical subject. The book was also honored with the Connecticut Book Publishers Award.

While conducting her Ives research, Perlis recognized the value of oral history to document musical figures, and she founded the Oral History of American Music (formerly Oral History, American Music) in 1969.

Perlis and composer Aaron Copland first became friends while working on the Ives project. Copland later wrote the preface for her book, Charles Ives Remembered. As the Ives project finished, Perlis focused on Copland as her new subject. From 1975-’76, she conducted many hours of interviews with Copland and those closest to him. Finally in 1984 and 1989, their efforts culminated in the autobiographies, Copland: 1900 through 1942 and Copland: Since 1943, co-authored by Perlis.

Oral History of American Music (OHAM) holds over 2,200 interviews and transcripts and is a special collection within Yale University's Irving S. Gilmore Music Library. The core unit, Major Figures in American Music, includes interviews with composers, classical performers, and jazz musicians. OHAM also holds projects on Ives, Paul Hindemith, Steinway & Sons, and Duke Ellington, video interviews with Yale graduate composers, and acquisitions.

In 2005, Perlis released a new book, Composers’ Voices From Ives to Ellington, which was co-written with Libby Van Cleve. The book celebrates 20th century composers and includes two CDs of interview material. The box set was nominated for the Grammy Awards' Best Classical Album in 1975. Then, in 1977, Perlis was historical consultant to the PBS Ives documentary, A Good Dissonance Like a Man. Aaron Copland: A Self Portrait (1985), and John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It (1990).

Awards The National Institute of Arts and Letters Charles Ives award 1971 The New England Association of Oral History's Harvey Kantor Award 1984 The Society for American Music's Irving Lowens Award 1991 Letter of Distinction from American Music Center 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for American Music The Yale School of Music's Sanford Medal 2010