Olmstead: Selected Reviews

Roger Sessions: A Biography

   "She gives a convincing an ultimately sympathetic account of a deep, brilliant, flawed figure. . . .overall a spendid job."

  -Classical net

Juilliard: A History

    "Even the practice rooms come to life in Juilliard: A History."
- Washington Post Book World

   "Olmstead offers a thoroughly researched narrative centered on the personalities and relationships that have given the school its character and nurutured it in its path to fame. . . . The view is illuminating." - Karen Ahlquist Journal of the American Musicological Society

   "A fascinating account of the personalities, politics, and cultural background of The Juilliard School." - MLA Notes

   "A powerful case study in how private institutions not only depend on charismatic personalities and great wealth but must be able to outwit and survive their dominance." - Leon Botstein Musical Quarterly

   "A work rich in detail, strikingly candid in its conclusions, and useful to understanding the history of music education in the United States." - History of Education Quarterly



The Correspondence of Roger Sessions

    "The heroine of the Sessions industry is undoubtedly Andrea Olmstead: seldom can a 20th-century composer have benefited from such dedicated archival and scholarly work . . . she is a virtuoso." - Peter Dickinson  Music & Letters

   "We are indebted to Olmstead's determination and zeal . . . Her approach is refreshing . . ." - Vivian Perlis MLA Notes

    "[Olmstead's] dedication has resulted in a trilogy of invaluable books on the American master . . . Together they form the most authoritative and comprehensive study on the life of the composer in existence."  - George Tsontakis The Musical Quarterly

   "Olmstead . . . has compiled a compelling volume of his letters. Her superb editing, fluid writing style, and devotion to the subject enhances a collection notable for its interesting biographical material and eloquence"  
- Daniel Fermon Library Journal



Conversations with Roger Sessions

    "The reader begins to wish for an opportunity to have met Sessions personally. But lacking that, Andrea Olmstead's pungent interviews may be the next best thing." - Douglas A. Lee  American Music Teacher

    "A rare addition to the literature on 20th-century music, this book appeals simultaneously to a professional audience (scholars, composers, and theorists) and to curious, interested music lovers." - Elliott Schwartz Choice

    "[Sessions] could be delightful company . . . the reader is captivated by his humor, enthusiasm, political awareness and his anecdotes . . ."  
- Publishers Weekly



Roger Sessions and His Music

    "[Olmstead] has given us everything that needs to be said about the life and work of this great composer."  - Gilbert Chase American Music

    "Sessions deserved a book like this decades ago. His background and training, his own enormous influence as a teacher, and the gradual evolution of his style are all handled with insight." - Martin Anderson Tempo

    "a superb study of one of the major American composers . . . the first substantial critique of Sessions as a composer and as a human being."
  - Choice


Sessions Symphonies Nos. 6, 7, and 9: CD


    "The transparent, well-focused recording and the authoritative annotation do their part in making this distinguished and important release one of the happiest of discoveries for listeners everywhere." - Richard Freed Stereo Review.