Alan Rich was an American music critic, based in New York and Los Angeles, who began his professional career in the 1950s and continued writing until his death in 2010. The collection includes research files, correspondence and memorial tributes, promotional scores and recordings sent to Rich from composers and music publications, an extensive collection of both drafts and periodical clippings of his writings, and recordings from the "Music Room" salons he co-hosted in Los Angeles with philanthropist Betty Freeman.

Alan Rich was born in Boston on June 17, 1924. While attending Harvard in the 1940s, he began working as an assistant music critic for The Boston Herald. Upon graduating, he discarded his original plans to attend medical school and instead enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. Under the mentorship of the musicologist Joseph Kerman, he earned a master's degree in Music in 1952. After graduating, he went to Europe on fellowship for a year, and then returned to Berkeley to become the music director of Pacifica Radio, station KPFA.

12.2 Linear Feet (10 document boxes, 5 record cartons, 7 flat boxes, 2 index card boxes)

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