Biographical sources for performers on sound recordings

Music Cataloging at YaleSound recording cataloging

Internet

Performers' short biographies (short biographies of every performer who has taken part in a recording of Bach's vocal works: mainly singers, conductors, chorus masters, choral and instrumental groups)

yiddishmusic.jewniverse.info: in English, Russian, and Yiddish; performer biographies from the 79 RPM and 33 1/3 RPM eras.
 


Big bands, jazz, etc.

Big bands from Canada | United States | Great Britain | Europe (1920s-1960s)

Solid! online encyclopedia of big band music and classic jazz


Singers

Dutch divas in opera & concert (updates)

Grandi tenori | Historical tenors | Biographical list of tenors by John Potter

Great Russian voices (note: archived version of the site)

Great singers from a personal collection; some have dates of birth/death

Malibran-Music specializing in French song

Musicals

Who's who in musicals

Opera

Čeští operni pěvci (Czech opera singers)

Historic opera
   Includes images of singers (with biographical information) (listed near top of page)
   and listings of singers without images
   A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | IJ | K | L | M | N | OP | QR | S | T | UV | WXYZ

Operaone


Print

Cowden, Robert H. Classical singers of the opera and recital stages: a bibliography of biographical materials. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.
   L128 V872 C8 1994

Kutsch, K.J. and Leo Riemens. Grosses Sängerlexikon. 3. erw. Aufl. München: K.G. Saur, c1997.
   ML105 K97 G8 1997

Sources for authority work in cataloging popular music: bibliographies of print sources for
blues, country and folk, jazz, musical theater, and miscellaneous popular music

Jacobsson, Stig. Svenska tonsättare: diskografi. [Stockholm] Rikskonserter, 1986, c1985.
   HSR ML156.4 N2 S9

Who's who in opera: an international biographical directory of singers, conductors, directors, designers, and administrators, also including profiles of 101 opera companies. New York: Arno Press, 1976.
   lsf ML102 O6 W5 (LC)