SARAH GRIFFIN: Hi.
I'm Sarah Griffin.
Assistant principal librarian of the New York Philharmonic.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The main job responsibility is having
the right piece of music in the right place at the right time.
It's kind of an old orchestra librarians creed.
We get Boeing's from the concertmaster
and we transfer those into the parts
that the musicians perform.
We make any corrections that need to go into the music,
and then make it available to the players.
We're kind of like the circus performers
who have all the sticks with the plates spinning.
That's sort of what we do.
We have many, many jobs going simultaneously.
And if we do our job well, then you'll never know we're around.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
There is no formal training for librarians.
This is kind of generally the path how it goes.
You start working in a library and then
you realize you love working in a library.
I was trained as an oboist.
I started playing the oboe in the sixth grade.
And I had my heart set on doing that as a career.
I got my doctorate in oboe performance,
and I was taking oboe auditions and it's
what I was going to do.
And I had applied for a job at an orchestra in Kansas City.
But while I was applying for it, the librarian,
I caught her attention somehow and she needed help
in the library and asked me if I could step in interim
and just help her do some things.
You're actually learning to be a librarian the whole time.
You're being trained as a oboist and many, many librarians
have that same story.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm making a new concertmaster part for the Brahms German
Requiem.
As any fan of the film knows, we have a new concertmaster now.
And to preserve Glenn's markings, we save his part
and we make Frank and new ones.
So right now, I'm transferring the Boeing's
into a clean heart for Frank.
Dogs.
West side.
Hamilton heights.
Probably Brahms one.
Stravinsky, he's amazing.
The one thing, you never have to reboot a piece of paper.
So I'm going to go with paper.
My husband and I started traveling at a young age
with his mom, who's an art teacher.
And she started taking trips when we were in high school
to Europe, and we've been to China, we went to Egypt.
Jeremy and I've been to Vancouver.
Our goal is to visit all of the national parks.
My husband and I met at band camp in 1953.
We have been together a long, long time.
Two years ago, we decided to experience a very new thing.
And we had our first child.
His name was Jack.
He's 2 and 1/2 and he has a little sister, who is Hazel
and she's seven months old.
So most of my free time is spent with them,
because they're just adorable.
And I love being a mom.
Being able to participate in a concert
and know that we've had our hands
and have taken care of the music that is onstage.
There's part of our heart that's out there with our colleagues,
and that's very gratifying.
It's a unique way of making music that a lot of people
don't get to experience.
You have to look at the music with musicians eyes,
and that gives us a very unique perspective
on making music with our colleagues in the orchestra.
Because we're very much a part of the concerts,
we're just not sitting onstage.
I also really love office supplies.
So that is a part of not why a loving library,
and it doesn't hurt.