Pre-event interviews as well as coverage on March 2 and 3 can be arranged by calling Cyndee Ramsthaler at 972-7820.

Akron, Ohio, Feb. 17, 1992--With events that include a dedication, two evening concerts and a new music forum, The University of Akron will celebrate the opening of the Sylvia Smith Archives of Smith Publications and Sonic Art Editions on March 2 and 3.

All of the events are free and open to the public.

The archives, a valuable resource for research on serious contemporary music, have been given to UA by Smith, the owner and editor of Baltimore-based Smith Publications. Founded in 1974, Smith Publications has published more than 300 titles by 48 composers and is internationally recognized as a leading source of new music.

Professor Larry D. Snider of The University of Akron School of Music has known Smith for years and was instrumental in bringing the archives to campus as a research resource.

"Doctoral and master's level students, as well as professional musicians, will find these archives to be invaluable for research," said Snider, who directs the school's percussion studies program. "The Sylvia Smith Archives will significantly enhance our international visibility in the arts."

The dedication ceremony will be March 2, 2 p.m., in the lobby of Bierce Library on campus. The archives will be housed in the library's special collections.

The dedication will feature the premiere performance of Movements of Varied Moments for Two , created for the occasion by Ralph Shapey, a new music composer whose works are published by Smith. The work for flute and vibraphone will be performed by Associate Professor George Pope and Professor Larry Snider of UA's School of Music.

Smith will attend the opening events, as will Shapey, William Brooks, Herbert Brün, Randolph Coleman, Ben Johnston, Stuart Saunders Smith, James Tenney, and other composers whose works are published by Smith.

The concerts will be at 8 p.m. on March 2 and 3 in Guzzetta Recital Hall. They will feature two different programs of music published by Smith Publications and performed by faculty, alumni and students of UA's School of Music. A reception will follow each concert.

The New Music Forum will be March 3, 1 to 3 p.m., in Guzzetta Recital Hall. Smith and several composers will talk about their works.

In 1988 Smith was awarded the American Music Center Letter of Distinction for her contributions to American music and culture. Music industry awards include two Presser Grants for the publication of American music and four Paul Revere Awards for Graphic Excellence for the presentation of a work of unusual complexity.

The Sylvia Smith Archives contains more than 300 published scores, more than 100 original manuscripts from the 1930s to the present, historically valuable correspondence between composers and publisher concerning aesthetics and the printed presentation of their works, and photographs of Smith Publications composers and historical musical events.

Also included are hundreds of recorded interpretations of the published scores in the form of records, compact discs, and tapes, including many rare, privately owned tapes. There are numerous concert programs, scholarly articles and books, and two exhibits of contemporary musical notations curated by Smith for New Music America in 1984 and 1985.

A special feature of the archives is a small collection of one-of-a-kind instruments, designed and built by the composers.

According to Smith, she will continue to contribute to the archives, eventually adding her company's business documents.

"A publisher of music is not merely a printer of music scores," said Smith. A publisher represents a particular value system--a point of view about what ought to be. The publisher's value system can most fully be expressed by the maintenance of an archives that documents the publishing process from beginning to end. The consumer just sees the end product, but an archives allows a look behind the scenes at the events and considerations leading up to the printed music score, and then the musical, cultural, and historical setting it finds itself in."

She added, "I have chosen The University of Akron for my archives because of the high value it gives to humanistic and social research."