Anchorage Festival of Music

The Anchorage Festival of Music was founded in 1956 though the collaboration of Mary Hale and the internationally renowned conductor, Robert Shaw, who served as Artistic Director and Conductor for the first twelve years of the company. Joining Maestro Shaw in the founding year were John Wustman, Julius Herford, Robert Gerle, and Blake Stern.

The Festival was organized to “provide local musicians and audiences the enriching experience of great music; studied, rehearsed and performed with inspired, professional direction.” From the 1957 program… “The flashing aurora, the treasured wealth in the earth, the towering peaks-again all these have their musical counterparts in the inspiration and beauty which come to us with the artists we are now honored to receive. As they share with us their dedication to the universal speech of music, we who listen and who participate in the Anchorage Festival of Music again become one with all the world of music, which is bound together in tribute to the finest interpretations of the masters’ works.”