Peter Shirts was recently hired as the music and audiovisual librarian at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. When asked about his new appointment, Mr. Shirts said, “I’m excited to be selecting materials for the UHM Music Department and look forward to meeting the music students here.” Shirts went on to say that he hopes to work one-on-one with students in research consulations and welcomes suggestions for materials to add to UH’s collections.
Shirts graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music education from Brigham Young University (Provo), where he sang bass in choirs, played in bands and orchestras (clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and baritone), was the drum major for the marching band, played in the Celtic ensemble, co-founded the BYU Klezmer ensemble, and was a founding member of Bintang Wayhu, BYU’s Balinese gamelan ensemble. He received a master’s in musicology from the University of Michigan, mainly working on the music of Claude Debussy. He has also presented or published on Percy Grainger, Scottish pop/folk group Capercaillie, Sting, and nerd rock songwriter and labelless entrepreneur Jonathan Coulton.
Shirts received a master’s in library science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he worked in the music library and completed a summer seminar in London and an internship with the music division of the Library of Congress.
Settled into his first floor office of Sinclair library, room 102, Shirts hopes students and faculty alike will consider him a resource as they pursue their own research interests.