Kostelanetz papers to Library of Congress

NEW YORK, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- The estate of Andre Kostelanetz has donated the Russian-born conductor-arranger's papers and artifacts to the Library of Congress.

Kostelanetz, who immigrated to the United States in 1922 at age 21, was an influential figure in the development of music recording and broadcasting. He is credited with discovering microphone placement, sound mixing and other techniques that allowed listeners to hear recorded and broadcast music more as it would sound in a live performance.

Kostelanetz died in 1980. His archive of papers, clippings, letters, sound recordings, posters and photographs is contained in more than 70 crates, the estate said in a new release.

His niece, filmmaker Lucy Kostelanetz, said the material would complement his earlier gifts of scores and parts for many of his arrangements -- joining archive materials of George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, Lorenz Hart, Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lerner and Irving Berlin.

"We feel great satisfaction in the belief that this is what Andre would have wanted -- to be again in the company of his musical colleagues," she said.

Kostelanetz was also known as a pioneer of the variety show format on radio and a driving force in the development of Columbia Records, one of the leading record labels of the 20th century. He was a guest conductor for the New York Philharmonic and major symphony orchestras around the world.