University of Wyoming
Paul Lavalle was a composer, conductor, and music director. He played the clarinet and saxophone. Lavalle began his music career as a student at Juilliard where he learned the art of composition from Joseph Schillinger. Lavalle played in an NBC house orchestra after college and his Symphonic Rhumba composition was debuted by the station in 1942.
Over the course of his professional career, Lavalle worked various radio programs, served as conductor of the Goldman Band and the Band of America which became the official band of the New York World’s Fair for 1964-1965, acted as a guest conductor with numerous bands and orchestras such as the Radio City Music Hall Symphony Orchestra in 1966, appeared on various television programs, and produced numerous albums.
Collection contains awards, certificates, biographical information, correspondence, and periodicals pertaining to Lavalle and his career; audiotapes and phonograph records from performances like those of Cities Service Band, Band of America, and the All-Stradivari Orchestra; sheet music for the Band of America, Cities Service, All-Stradivari Orchestra directed by Lavalle, as well as Deadly Fathoms Symphony; original music scores and published music by Lavalle such as “All-American Bicentennial March,” “Dwight D. Eisenhower March,” “The Man Behind the Horn,” “Manhattan Rhapsody,” “Symphonic Rhumba,” and others; albums and photographs of Lavalle and his many associates and bands; scrapbooks, pressbooks, programs, clippings, and other related materials concerning Lavalle’s career; and video tapes of Lavalle performing a clarinet solo, Lavalle conducting the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra in 1972, and the All American High School Band in 1970 at the Pasadena Rose Bowl Parade.
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Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Collection Name, Collection Number, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
This material was received from Paul Lavalle and his trustees in February 1981 and March 2001.
[Paul Lavalle collection], Lavalle Coll, Music Archives, James Madison University.
The American Heritage Center is in the process of converting its older container lists to a more accessible format. This link is to an older version of a container list for 620 boxes.