Listen to the podcast episode
On the Scoring Notes podcast, David MacDonald and Philip Rothman recap the 2025 MOLA Conference from the University of Michigan, with a summary of the tech fair and conference sessions on broadening access, copyright, professional development, IMSLP, and much more. Listen now:
Participants from around the globe gathered once again to meet, share knowledge, attend information sessions, meet old friends, and make new ones this past weekend. Hosted by The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the 43rd annual conference of MOLA: An Association of Performance Librarians ran from May 30 through June 2, 2025, and brought together music librarians, publishers, vendors, composers, performers, and technology enthusiasts.
MOLA actually is an acronym for Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association, which is what the organization was known as since its founding in 1983 until a few years ago. MOLA’s conferences — other than the virtual one during COVID — have always been associated with a professional host orchestra. The 2025 conference, though, was the first one hosted by a university, reflecting the organization’s broader membership. It spotlighted the working environments of the academic performance librarian and offered opportunities to cross-pollinate ideas across ensemble tiers and types.
Tech Fair
Running simultaneously on the first day were a pre-conference workshop geared towards librarians newer to the profession, and the third annual Tech Fair dedicated to exploring the intersection of technology and music librarianship. In some ways, this year’s Tech Fair seemed like the end of “Tech Fair 1.0”, a successful culmination of an effort to integrate technology into the conference that stretches back well over a decade.
This year’s fair began with David McDonald and his colleagues in a session called “Practical Technology” discussing the various tools and systems that librarians use to manage their collections and streamline their workflows.
During the day, representatives from Newzik, Dorico, dimusco, and Scoremusic gave dedicated presentations devoted to their respective products, and exhibited during the course of the conference to interested delegates.
The fair concluded with a session that I moderated called “Life After Finale”, which addressed the sunsetting of the popular music notation software Finale and explored alternatives like Dorico, Sibelius, and MuseScore. Although the news is familiar by now to regular Scoring Notes followers, this session was particularly valuable for librarians who needed to understand how to transition their existing Finale files to new platforms and make the most of the latest features in music notation software. Joining me were John Barron, international product specialist for Dorico (Steinberg); Cory Davis, editor and production manager at Dunvagen Music Publishers.
Interspersed throughout the conference were both official and unofficial opportunities to relax and socialize. Hank Skolnick from the Saint Louis Symphony joined David, John, Cory, and me for a casual dinner and some fancy ice cream!
I enjoy catching up with my colleagues in the field, and I always come away learning more each year. I particularly appreciated the time that everyone shared outside of the formality of the conference setting, and was once again reminded how generous everyone is sharing their experience. I had the great pleasure of convening members and associates of MOLA’s Publisher and Publications committees for some convivial conversation over dinner at a local downtown Ann Arbor spot.
The rest of the conference
Naturally, the conference explored many other topics in addition to technology. Although David and I couldn’t attend them all, we did our best.
The conference officially kicked off with the opening plenary session, titled “Broadening Access: Collaboration in Classical Music”, and it set the tone for the conference by addressing the importance of diversity and inclusion in the arts. Panelists Eugene Rogers, Carolina Heredia, and Ashley Lucas discussed the challenges and opportunities in commissioning and performing works by composers from diverse backgrounds.
Copyright and licensing were once again hot topics at the conference. At the session entitled “Permission to Play: Navigating Copyright for Today’s Rehearsal and Tomorrow’s Stage”, the University of Michigan’s head performance librarian and licensing manager Liz Nowland and her colleagues from the university discussed the complexities of copyright law, especially in relation to new editions of public domain works and the differences between orchestral “arrangements” and “covers” of popular music.
Not lost on anyone attending the conference were the fact that Liz and her library colleague Megan Fisher were terrific hosts, and, along with MOLA Administrator Amy Tackitt, kept the trains running smoothly throughout the entirety of the conference.
Speaking of copyright, the topic also arose in the session “Don’t Sleep on IMSLP”. IMSLP, which stands for International Music Score Library Project, keeps its servers in Canada, and the session’s participants explored the particularities of that arrangement. This session underscored the value of the IMSLP resource for music librarians and probed the site’s features beyond its flagship purpose of obtaining scores, by showcasing its extensive metadata and the potential for contributing new works under Creative Commons licenses.
The “Many Hats of the Librarian” session highlighted the diverse roles that librarians play, from performers to administrators, and emphasized the importance of clear communication and delegation — especially when a librarian is literally performing another role, like as an instrumentalist in the orchestra. Apparently, though, the hats were metaphorical, at least for now!
The conference also offered sessions on professional development, such as “Freelancing: Working as a Personal Librarian,” led by Laura Cones and Paul Beck, who, in addition to their roles as full-time employees of the Indianapolis Symphony and Milwaukee Symphony respectively, have had extensive stints as freelance librarians. This session provided valuable advice for librarians who juggle multiple roles and responsibilities, offering tips on how to manage time effectively and maintain a healthy work-life balance, along with practical tips for independent contractors at tax time.
Other sessions, roundtables and gatherings rounded out this year’s conference, with Christian Rudolf Riedel receiving the organization’s Eroica Award during the Sunday evening banquet dinner. Riedel worked for more than 30 years in the editorial department at Breitkopf & Härtel in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he supervised the first critical edition of Beethoven’s symphonies, numerous volumes of the Sibelius Complete Edition, and other major orchestral works. He thanked the MOLA members in a video message.
The Scoring Notes recap
Speaking of video messages, my Scoring Notes co-host David MacDonald and I continued our tradition of offering a “live” from MOLA dispatch to our mutual audience of Scoring Notes followers and MOLA members, while having some fun along the way.
We recorded a special podcast episode on the third day of the conference, and you can watch it in all its glory now, or wait for this coming Saturday morning when it will be dropped into the regular Scoring Notes podcast feed in audio-only format, available from wherever you like to get your podcasts.
As the 2025 MOLA conference concluded, attendees were no doubt already looking forward to the 2026 gathering, set to be hosted by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia. With any luck, Scoring Notes will be there to bring you that report from down under!
