LMU Digitizes 5 Recordings of one of Los Angeles’ Great Chorale Directors

Last year, LMU began a partnership with the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP). CAVPP provides funds for digitization and establishes low-cost and practical standards to help California libraries, archives, and museums move from the analog age to the digital age. Several items from the KCET-TV Collection of “Life and Times” video recordings were made accessible through the Internet Archive in the California Light and Sound Collection. We have been lucky to continue working with CAVPP and the newest group of digitized recordings features some University Archives recordings. Among these recordings are five audio files documenting Spring Chorale performances from 1967 to 1971 by the Loyola University Men’s Chorus directed by Paul Salamunovich.

From 1964 to 1991, Salamunovich served as a music professor and the director of choral activities at Loyola University and LMU. His efforts transformed choral music at Loyola University and LMU from a small group of interested students and music majors to a renowned chorus with opportunities to perform in Carnegie Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Sistine Chapel. In addition to raising the quality of choral music at this University, Salamunovich spent 10 years as Director of the L.A. Master Chorale, 50 years as Director of Music at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, has guest lectured and conducted at a number of workshops, clinics, and festivals, and taught at USC, and at Mount St. Mary’s College. Paul’s passion and talent for choral music has been carried on in the students he worked with and is still remembered fondly by the LMU community as one of our greatest faculty. Salamunovich passed away in 2014.

Paul SalamunovichThe digitization of these five recordings confirms that the original audio tapes are in good condition. We hope to continue to make additional recordings of the chorus under Salamunovich’s direction available online in the future. The following links lead to the audio: