| Links to Weekend Ticket Order Form | |||
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| Fox Festival Weekend all Concerts, Events and Discussion Sessions (On-Line order form) If you have questions, please e-mail weekend@virgilfox.com or call 800.486.6628
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| Spivey Hall Concert (concert only - ticket link coming soon) |
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| Atlanta Fox Theatre Concert (Concert only - Ticketmaster) |
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| Virgil Fox and the Albert Schweitzer Music Award Metropolitan Opera soprano Anna Moffo will receive the 2002 Albert Schweitzer Music Award “for a life’s work dedicated to music and devoted to humanity.” It will be presented during the September 1 Virgil Fox Memorial Concert at the Fox Theatre. |
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| The Albert Schweitzer Music Award was instigated at a meeting between Rhena Schweitzer Miller, an Atlanta citizen and the only child of Dr. Schweitzer, and Richard Torrence. They were introduced at the organ console of Peachtree Christian Church, Atlanta, where Ms. Miller called attention to the "Schweitzer Flöte" on the E. Power Biggs-designed Fratelli Ruffatti instrument. As a child, Dr. Schweitzer's daughter had turned pages for Charles Marie Widor at Nôtre Dame de Paris, and her first husband was an organ builder, so she was familiar with pipe organs. Mr. Torrence suggested that it might be a "Swiss Flute," and she said that would be spelled differently; this was definitely named after her father, the eminent Bach authority, organist, theologian, medical doctor, and Nobel Peace Prize awardee. Ms. Miller expressed regret that her father had not been better known as a musician. Although he was primarily known as a medical doctor, "Bach was his passion." She asked Torrence if he would help her put on a concert in New York for the January 14, 1975 celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of her father. Marshall Yaeger subsequently suggested that the occasion establish a music award in the name of her father so that people might ask, "Why a music award in the name of Albert Schweitzer?", thus highlighting his contributions in music. Yaeger wrote the proclamation for the award, "for a life's work dedicated to music and devoted to humanity," and established that the award would always be given to a musician humanitarian. The concert was discussed with Julius Bloom, Executive Director of Carnegie Hall, who offered to help produce the concert. Isaac Stern was chosen as the first recipient by a committee which included a representative of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (which sponsored the concert) and Dr. Walter Anderson, Head of the Music Department of the National Endowment for the Arts (and himself an organist and composer). On the actual 100th birthday anniversary, an all-Bach concert was presented at Carnegie Hall. Eugene Istomin opened with Bach on the piano. Marta Casals, wife of Bach specialist and cellist Pablo Casals, hosted the evening, and read from the writings of Dr. Schweitzer. Richard Westenberg conducted the American Symphony Orchestra and the Bethlehem Bach Choir. Virgil Fox was soloist in the Bach D Minor Concerto, and played several solo works on the new five manual Rodgers organ in Carnegie Hall. Subsequent recipients of the Albert Schweitzer Music Award have been Katherine Dunham (dancer, musician, educator - 1979), Van Cliburn (pianist, cultural ambassador - 1983), Mstislav Rostropovich (cellist, conductor, human rights advocate - 1985), Leonard Bernstein (pianist, conductor, educator - 1987), John Denver (singer, composer, environmentalist - 1992), and the Three Tenors (who are also prominent humanitarians in various endeavors) Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti (1998).  Anna Moffo, the great Metropolitan Opera soprano, is an educator and philanthropist. She celebrated her 40th anniversary with the Metropolitan Opera in 2000, and continues to work tirelessly on behalf of the American Cancer Society, Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and other charities. The 2002 Schweitzer Music Award was announced at a luncheon in New York hosted by Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent, Chairman of Anchor-International Foundation. Appropriately, it will be given in Atlanta, one of the few cities capable of hosting tours of the Metropolitan Opera National Company in the 1960s and 1970s, where it played at the glorious Fox Theatre.Virgil Fox kept a copy of Albert Schweitzer’s “J.S. Bach, Vol. I” on his night table, and said that he often read himself to sleep with its already well-known chapters. He often talked about Bach and Albert Schweitzer during his concerts, including “Heavy Organ,” and he considered a highpoint of his life was meeting Dr. Schweitzer during his only visit to America, in July, 1949.
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