History

AMERICAN LANDMARK FESTIVALS, founded in 1973 by Francis L. Heilbut, is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization dedicated to the presentation of outstanding artists in great landmarks of historical, architectural and scenic significance. ALF has cooperated with the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior and with foreign and local governments, as well as with private organizations, to present performing arts events in a wide variety of landmark venues. Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Castle Clinton, Federal Hall, Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace in New York City, Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, Washington’s Headquarters at Morristown, Longfellow House in Cambridge and other nationally registered landmarks have been the forum of continuous ALF performance series. ALF events range from symphony concerts to solo recitals, and have included opera, drama, mime, dance, gymnastics, and poetry readings, and have received excellent press.

 

Throughout its history, ALF has given the public its first chance to hear upcoming young artists who have gone on to major careers—June Anderson, the Emerson Quartet, and Swedish baritone Håkan Hagegård, for example—and has presented established performers as well, including Eleanor Steber, Artur Balsam, Eugenia Zukermann, Gary Karr, Eliot Fisk, Jerome Hines, Lucine Amara, Paul Doktor. In 1994 Ursula Vaughan Williams, widow of England’s great composer, appeared in ALF’s Distinguished Poet Series. In 1985 ALF brought the celebrated Gyuto Tantric Monks of Tibet to the United States for the first time, with a national tour.

 

ALF has presented a number of special events celebrating important anniversaries and milestones in the history of music. In 1975 ALF re-created the original program of the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind, at Castle Clinton, the exact location of her sensational American debut in 1850. A 1988 recital at Carnegie Hall featured operatic basso Jerome Hines in his New York recital debut. In 1991 at Carnegie Hall ALF celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the great tenor, Richard Tauber, with a gala concert which featured, among others, Alfredo Kraus, Jarmila Novotna, Jerry Hadley, Helga Dernesch, James King, Vinson Cole, Judy Kaye, Evelyn Laye, Marta Eggerth, Martile Rowland, and the two winners of the first Richard Tauber International Competition for Tenors. In 1994 ALF played host to a special presentation at Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace of Robert Sherman’s radio program , Woody’s Children, featuring Pete Seeger, Odetta, Tom Paxton and Judy Collins. In 1995 ALF presented a Jenny Lind anniversary concert at Castle Clinton featuring international opera stars Elisabeth Soderstrom and Martile Rowland as well as the winner of the Jenny Lind Competition of Bridgeport, CT, hometown of the man who risked his fortune to bring Jenny Lind to America in 1850, P.T. Barnum.

 

     In 1994 ALF held the second Richard Tauber International Competition for Tenors, and presented the $5000 First Prize on May 16th, Tauber’s birthday, to American tenor John Uhlenhopp. In November, 1995, ALF held finals for the third such competition in which Arn Prince was the First Prize winner, and in 1998 mezzo soprano Wendy Hoffman was the First Prize winner in a special ALF competition to honor Tauber’s legendary partner, Jarmila Novotna.

 

     With the support of donors, large and small, ALF’s special projects include the development of an international festival to honor tenor Richard Tauber and the revival of opera at the historic Smith Opera House in Geneva, New York, where it produced Mozart’s Magic Flute and in 2003 a revival of Charles W. Cadman’s Sunset Trail in conjunction with a new arts festival in this beautiful Finger Lakes area.

 

     You are cordially invited to become a Friend of ALF. Contributions to ALF are tax-deductible, to the extent allowed by law. For further information, contact e-mail: contact@americanlandmarkfestivals.org