Onstage: La Musicale de la Bibliothèque de Genève

Attached to the Bibliothèque de Genève since 1998, La Musicale is a public music lending library which also has a heritage collection. Among other things, it preserves a rich collection of more than 20,000 concert and theatre programmes from Geneva from the 19th century to the present day. This ephemera collection – one of the library's centres of excellence – is a representative reflection of Geneva's musical life.

This collection, organised according to a classification plan linked to concert halls and organisations, is preserved in conditions that guarantee its durability. It is classified chronologically and can be consulted on site by the public. The digitisation of a selection of programmes (approx. 10% of the collection) has made it possible to join onstage in 2020. Only programmes from certain venues up to 1945 have been included in onstage, a date limit due, among other things, to copyright law.

It should also be noted that the collection of La Musicale is complementary to that of the library of the Conservatoire de musique de Genève and sometimes overlapping.

Contact: Claudio Bacciagaluppi