The Albert Schweitzer Music Award was founded by Richard Torrence and Marshall Yaeger at the request of Rhena Schweitzer Miller, only child of Dr. and Mrs. Schweitzer. Ms. Schweitzer had requested that New York's 1975 Albert Schweitzer Fellowship centenary observations feature Dr. Schweitzer as a musician rather than physician or theologian, "because music was his passion." Schweitzer was a prominent organist himself, co-authored the Widor-Schweitzer editions of the organ works of J.S. Bach, and remains the only professional musician to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
As Marshall Yaeger wrote in the Albert Schweitzer Music Award tributes: "Some performers manifest humanitarian characteristics to an extraordinary degree. Albert Schweitzer was such a man. His philanthropy, so celebrated in his time, made him one of the most famous men in the world. The reason for his fame was not that he sought it, but that his sacrifice was so spectacular. Perhaps because the practice of any art requires someone prepared to make sacrifices few recognize and fewer encourage, many musicians can be found who perform acts of courage and humanity similar to Schweitzer's. It is to honor these heroes and heroines — as well as to memorialize Albert Schweitzer, a paradigm of their example — that this award is given."
The first Albert Schweitzer Music Award was given to violinist Isaac Stern, "for a life's work dedicated to music and devoted to humanity," at the Carnegie Hall centenary concert. The all-Bach concert also featured the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Westenberg, pianist Eugene Istomin, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the American Boychoir, and narrator Marta Casals. Leonard Bernstein was honorary chairman; Virgil Fox and Andrés Segovia were chairmen.
Virgil Fox was a devotee of the writings by musicologist Albert Schweitzer on Johann Sebastian Bach, and was soloist at the first Albert Schweitzer Music Award concert in Carnegie Hall on the 100th anniversary of Dr. Schweitzer's birth, January 14, 1975. Dr. Fox met Dr. Schweitzer in New York in 1949, during Schweitzer's only visit to America. He often quoted him in concerts.
The second Albert Schweitzer Music Award was presented to dance and music pioneer Katherine Dunham at a videotaped performance by the reconstituted Dunham Dancers, under the direction of Glory Van Scott, in Carnegie Hall in 1979. The dance concert was presented by the Board of Homeland Ministries of the United Church of Christ. Ms. Dunham had become an educator in the ghettos of East St. Louis, after a brilliant career as dancer and choreographer (the first African-American to choreograph at the Metropolitan Opera) — who always used original music. The honorary chairman of the Carnegie Hall concert was Coretta Scott King; Sir Rudolf Bing and Jane Pickens Hoving were the chairmen.
In 1983, Van Cliburn was honored in a concert at Carnegie Hall that featured soprano Leontyne Price, and Van Cliburn International Piano Competition winners Ralph Votapek and Steven DeGroote, with the Northwood Orchestra conducted by Don Th. Jaeger. Greer Garson read from the writings of Dr. Schweitzer, and the concert was presented by Northwood Institute of Midland, Michigan on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. A dinner in Mr. Cliburn's honor took place in the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza Hotel, for which Mrs. Elton M. Hyder Jr and W. Clement Stone were chairmen.
Mstislav Rostropovich was honored with the Albert Schweitzer Music Award in 1985. A concert of the National Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Rostropovich conductor and cello soloist, was presented by The Creo Society at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center. Martha Hyder was chairman; co-chairmen were Gordon Getty, Armand Hammer, Caroline Lynch, and Judy Peabody. A dinner at the Plaza Hotel Grand Ballroom followed the concert. Eugenia and Henri Doll were specially honored as patrons of music, and proceeds from the event were given to the Mannes College of Music in the form of a scholarship fund.
In 1987, pianist/composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein was the Albert Schweitzer Music Award honoree at a concert at Avery Fisher Hall. He directed the New York Philharmonic and the Westminster College Choir in a performance of Gustav Mahler's "Resurrection Symphony" with soloist Christa Ludwig. The dinner that followed was at Avery Fisher Hall. Mrs. William F. Buckley Jr. was honorary chairman of the evening, which benefited the Felicia Monteleagre Fund at Amnesty International. Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, Fernanda Niven, Mr. and Mrs. Milton Petrie, and Mr. and Mrs. Steven C. Rockefeller Jr. were co-chairmen of the events, and Lauren Bacall hosted the award ceremony for The Creo Society. Irma Lazarus was the evening's special honoree, in recognition of her work on behalf of the American Symphony Orchestra League.
Popular singer/composer John Denver, under the auspices of the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities, received the Albert Schweitzer Music Award in 1993, for his musical contributions and international environmental work. The award ceremony took place at Quinnipiac College in Connecticut, where the Institute was located. Mr. Denver played a concert nearby at an outdoor facility. Proceeds benefited the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities. The award was given to Mr. Denver by Rhena Schweitzer Miller, who had also presented it at all previous award events.
In 1997, again under the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities, the Albert Schweitzer Music Award was presented to three prominent tenors: José Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti. A televised concert by the Three Tenors, from the New Jersey Meadowlands, featured a description of Dr. Schweitzer's work. The award ceremony preceded a dinner at New York's Metropolitan Club, and the three bronze presentation awards were designed by a Russian jeweler in the Fabergé tradition, Andrei Pamelnikov. Elizabeth Kummerfeld was chairman of the evening.
The Albert Schweitzer Music Award is now administered under the direction of its founders, Richard Torrence and Marshall Yaeger, by Anchor-International Foundation, a medical/cultural organization working in America, Russia, and the United Kingdom. The 2002 Albert Schweitzer Music Award was presented to its 10th recipient, soprano Anna Moffo, on September 1 at 3:00 PM, during an organ concert in the Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia. The 2002 award recipient was announced in New York at a luncheon on May 8, 2002 hosted by HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Chairman of Anchor-International Foundation.
Metropolitan Opera star Anna Moffo celebrated her 40th anniversary with the Met in 2001. Until her death in 2006, she continued to teach voice in New York, and was an active philanthropist in the arts and medicine. Her second husband was Robert Sarnoff, whose father founded NBC and RCA. After he died, she helped to administer a fund in the name of his parents (the Lillian & H. Huber Boscowitz Charitable Trust, which generously benefited National Public Television, the American Cancer Society, the Curtis Institute of Music, many New York cultural institutions, and Anchor-International Foundation.
Ms. Moffo was a favorite performer in Atlanta during the 1960s and 1970s, when the Met National Company still toured the United States. Performances were always at the Fox Theatre. A reception after the August 31 Spivey Hall concert honored Anna Moffo Sarnoff "for a life's work dedicated to music and devoted to humanity." The award was presented to Ms. Moffo during the September 1 Fox Theatre concert starring organists Larry Douglas Embury, Tom Hazleton, Lyn Larsen, and Jonas Nordwall.
