The Arvo Pärt Centre participated in the congress of the International Association of Music Libraries in Prague

From 24 to 29 July, 2022 the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague, hosted the congress of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) that had been postponed twice since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. IAML is an international organisation with 1,700 members, bringing together libraries, music archives, music information and documentation centres as well as private persons interested in research, preservation and promotion of music.

The Arvo Pärt Centre was represented at the congress by archivist Anneli Kivisiv and librarian Toomas Schvak, both of whom also gave presentations on the activities of the centre. Anneli Kivisiv presented an overview of the formation of Arvo Pärt’s personal archive from the Soviet period to the present day – the main hindrances and peculiarities in each period of development that have had or continue to have effect on the use of the archive by the composer, centre staff and nowadays also general public, and on the archive management. Toomas Schvak presented the main topics covered in Arvo Pärt’s personal library and their relevance for the researchers as well as the story of how the composer’s library ended up at the centre and what kind of challenges were met in organising the collections.