James Arkatov photographs, circa 1940-circa 2000

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Summary

Abstract:
The collection consists of photographs of musicians and fine artists taken by the cellist, James Arkatov. The photographs are in the process of being digitized. The finding aid will continue to be updated as the digital files become available.
Extent:
4.0 Linear Feet (8 boxes containing 2975 photographs)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], James Arkatov Photographs (Collection PASC 340). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of photographs of jazz musicians performing in the Los Angeles area; classical musicians, and fine artists taken by cellist, James Arkatov.

The collection is organized into the following series:

  1. Series 1. Jazz Musicians
  2. Series 2. Classical Musicians
  3. Series 3. Fine Artists
Biographical / historical:

Jim Arkatov has had distinguished careers as a musician and photographer. He was born in Odessa, Russia and left with his family at an early age for San Francisco, where he developed as a child prodigy and gave his debut cello recital at age 14. At age 18, he was invited by Fritz Feiner to join the Pittsburgh Symphony. Later, he joined the San Francisco Symphony with Pierre Monteux, and went on to be principal cellist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under Fabien Sevitzky.

Arkatov returned to California in 1946 as a freelance musician in major studios of Hollywood and was later appointed principal cellist of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Continuing his solo activities, he appeared in the Monday Evening Concert Series. In 1956, he married Salome Ramras, and they performed a piano-cello duo, performing in concerts throughout California. In 1968, he founded the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and was its first principal cellist.

He had begun his photographic career when he was with the Pittsburgh Symphony. In 1990, these photographs became the basis of his first book, "Masters of Music." In 1998, he published his second book, "Artists: The Creative Personality." He has permanent and rotating exhibits of his photographs at the Colburn School of Music, the Cedar-Sinai Hospital and the Doheny Library of the University of Southern California.

Processing information:

Processed by UCLA Library Special Collections staff.

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We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.

Physical location:
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], James Arkatov Photographs (Collection PASC 340). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website