<<<  <<  -- 3 --  Kelly Ferjutz    HALL OF FAME

While most of the inductees are composers, conductors, singers, musicologists, and that most necessary category of all -- patrons and patronesses, there have been a few other interesting additions. In 1999, there was the Music Division of the Library of Congress, followed the next year by the Metropolitan Opera, based in New York City. Two other New York institutions followed the next year -- The Juilliard String Quartet and the New York Philharmonic, the first current orchestra to be inducted. In 2002, they were joined by the Cincinnati Symphony and Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, a period-instrument orchestra and professional chorus. In 2003, the Boston Symphony Orchestra was selected by the national balloting process supervised by the National Artistic Directorate of the ACMHF.

While the first class of inductees consisted of 24 entities, in 2006, there was only one selection -- Martin Bookspan, the venerable radio voice of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and music lecturer for many, many years. There was no class at all for 2005, making the 2007 class all the sweeter.

Actually, the official opening was 12 September 1997, and part of that observation included the introduction of a new series of United States Postal Service stamps honoring American composers and conductors. Three of those artists featured on the stamps will be in this first class of inductees: conductor Leopold Stokowski along with composers Charles Ives and Samuel Barber. They're all in there now, with one exception: composer Ferde Grofé. Inducted in 2000 were George Szell and Eugene Ormandy, while Arthur Fiedler came in the next year, 2001, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk in 2002.

Membership or other information about The American Classical Music Hall of Fame is available through several means: the web-site is: americanclassicalmusic.org. The telephone number is +1 (513) 621 3263 or by mail at: 1225 Elm Street, Cincinnati OH 45202, USA.