Nieweg

Clinton F. Nieweg, retired principal librarian of The Philadelphia Orchestra is currently owner of ~ Proof Purr-fect Research ~ a research company that locates music for conductors, librarians and players worldwide.

 Born in West Chester, PA, and raised in Reading, PA, he studied string bass with Wes Fisher and harp with Edna Phillips, former principal harp of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Nieweg graduated from West Chester University (1959) with a Bachelor of Science in Music Education with a concentration of String Bass, Harp and Orchestra Library Science.

 Prior to his joining the Orchestra, Mr. Nieweg was head of the instrumental department at J.W. Pepper & Son Music Publishers (world’s largest distributor of educational music) and rental librarian at Theodore Presser Music Publishers. In the evenings, he volunteered and studied with Jesse Taynton, former principal librarian with the Orchestra. Mr. Nieweg joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1975 as a salaried assistant librarian and met his life-long goal by becoming principal librarian in 1979. At this time, he became a mentor to students wanting to become orchestra librarians. Creating this career for musicians is a specialty of Mr. Nieweg as no school is currently offering a program in orchestra librarianship. His students are now librarians at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; National Symphony, DC; Toledo Symphony, OH; New World Symphony, FL. – to name a few.

 Mr. Nieweg founded and is past president of MOLA (Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association). This international organization, with a current membership of over 500 librarians, has held an annual conference for the past 36 years. In 1989, he received from Maestro Riccardo Muti, The Philadelphia Orchestra’s C. Hartman Kuhn Award for being that year’s most valuable member.

 Mr. Nieweg retired from The Philadelphia Orchestra in December 2002 and was recognized by his peers for his many years of outstanding service and musicianship. He continues to mentor orchestra librarian students, compile research for conductors and librarians, and is a contributing editor to the “Score and Parts” column of the Journal of the Conductors' Guild. He founded a Yahoo! Group - OLI (Orchestra Library Information) for the small and mid-budget orchestra librarians with a current membership of over 400.

 In 2009 Mr. Nieweg was the first performance librarian to be honored by the Conductors Guild.

Mr. Nieweg continues as supervising editor for the Nieweg et. al. Performance Editions, which are published by Edwin F. Kalmus & Co. LC. Over 180 of his critical and corrected orchestra editions are available.