Heskes, Irene.

Irene Newman Heskes was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 15, 1923. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from New York University in 1943. She received a degree in Cantorial Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1963. Heskes also pursued additional studies in Jewish musicology at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, with musicologist Eric Werner. From 1960-1976 she was staff music consultant and frequent lecturer for New York's Theodor Herzl Institute. She served initially as Music Consultant, 1968-1972, then Director, 1972-1980, of the Jewish Music Council. Her first major book grew out of her work with the Council, when she edited Studies in Jewish Music: Collected Writings of A.W. Binder, 1971. In 1985 Irene Heskes published her second book, The Resource Book of Jewish Music. Heskes was forced out of the Jewish Music Council in 1980. Almost simultaneously, she founded the Yiddish Theater Music Restoration and Revival Project. It originated with a large donation to Heskes of Yiddish Theatre sheet music from the Hebrew Publishing Company. She donated six cartons of this music to the Library of Congress in 1987; these titles were combined with the Library's Lawrence Marwick Roster of Copyright Entries to produce her third major book, Yiddish-American Popular Songs, 1895-1950, published in 1992. On April 30, 1997 Heskes was invited to a special presidential preview of the American Treasures of the Library of Congress exhibition. An 1897 Yiddish Theatre poster she had donated had been chosen to be part of this permanent exhibition. She served as editor for the 1999 edition of Musica Judaica: Journal of the American Society for Jewish Music, but, during its preparation, suddenly became very ill and died on October 14, 1999.