Espe Alegria Music Collection

Espe Alegria Music Collection (Filer City Library)
Filer, Twin Falls County

  • Grant: 1994, 1995

Location: Filer City Library, 219 Main Street, Filer 83328

In the 1950s Espe Alegria was asked to temporarily take over a Sunday night radio program for Basques on KGEM in Boise. The job lasted until 1981. Before her death she gifted her vast collection of Basque, French and Spanish language music to the Idaho State Historical Society. In 1994 the Idaho Arts Archives and Research Center at the Filer Public Library made a request to the Heritage Trust for help in conserving and documenting the collection of recordings and reel-to-reel tapes collected by Alegria between the 1920s and 1970s. Early “talk show” recordings include an appeal from the Basque country in Spain to raise money for medical expenses during the Franco conflict. But the collection is primarily a rich history of the Basque musical heritage. Copies of some of the music now reside at the Filer Library and the Idaho State Historical Society Library and Archives.

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