Description: Original description reads: "Federal Music Project. Negro Dance Orchestra performing on the terrace in front of Union Station, Cincinnati, Ohio." The Federal Music Project (FMP), part of the Federal government of the United States New Deal program Federal Project No. 1, employed musicians, conductors and composers during the Great Depression. People in the music world had been particularly hard-hit by the era's economic downturn. In addition to performing thousands of concerts, offering music classes, organizing the Composers Forum Laboratory, hosting music festivals and creating 34 new orchestras, employees of the FMP researched American traditional music and folk songs, a practice now called ethnomusicology. In the latter domain the Federal Music Project did notable studies on cowboy, Creole and "Negro" music. The FMP's director—for the majority of its brief life—was Nikolai Sokoloff. During the Great Depression, many people visited these symphonies to forget about the economic hardship of the time. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F11_003_1
Subjects: Music--Performance; African Americans--Music; Dance orchestras; Federal Music Project (U.S.); Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Original description reads: "W.P.A. band at Linden Community Center, Dayton, Ohio, June 29, 1936. Louis Becker, director." The Federal Music Project (FMP), a WPA-sponsored federal project, was designed to give employment to professional musicians registered on the relief rolls during the great depression. The project employed these musicians as instrumentalists, singers, concert performers, and teachers of music. Dr. Nikolai Sokoloff, former conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, was appointed Director of the FMP. The program was initiated in September 1935 and continued until June 1939, at which time individual states were given the responsibility of continuing or ending current projects. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B12F08_018_001
Subjects: Bands (Music); Musicians--Ohio; Federal Music Project (U.S.); United States. Works Progress Administration
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)
 

Description: This is a program for a concert. The composers of the pieces being played include Beethoven and Verdi. The concert may have been part of the Federal Music Project that lasted from 1935-1939, or its successor, the WPA Music Program, that lasted from 1939-1943. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B12F08_037_001
Subjects: Programs; Concerts; Federal Music Project (U.S.)
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Attached caption reads: "FEDERAL MUSIC PROJECT Photo taken at McKinley School, Eastern Avenue. Dance orchestra performing at a dance. Eight performers. Photo by W.P.A. Photographer, Federal Project No. 1. (Writers') District #16 Cincinnati, Ohio. 5-4-36" McKinley School is near Columbia Parkway, west of Alms Park. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B11F06_034_001
Subjects: Bands (Music); Musicians--Ohio; Federal Music Project (U.S.); United States. Works Progress Administration; Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works; Pitman, Benn, 1822-1910; Architecture, Domestic--Ohio--Pictorial works.; National Register of Historic Places; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writ
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)