{"id":23273,"date":"2026-09-04T10:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/sibley\/?p=23273"},"modified":"2026-09-06T21:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:31:40","slug":"sep7-sep13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/sibley\/2026\/09\/sep7-sep13\/","title":{"rendered":"Sep 7th- Sep 13th: Howard Hanson met President Eisenhower at the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1763390766007{padding-top: 40px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1788530204990{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”]Published on Sep 7th, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Back to This Week at Eastman<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1726852979961{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”1956: The first time when an Eastman School Director met the President of the United States” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1788530279676{border-top-width: 0px !important;border-right-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;border-left-width: 0px !important;border-left-style: solid !important;border-right-style: solid !important;border-top-style: solid !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;border-color: #dddddd !important;border-radius: 1px !important;}”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1729000374562{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1788532915528{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”]Seventy years ago this week, on Monday, September 10th<\/sup>, 1956, Howard Hanson met President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Oval Office at the White House, marking the first time that an Eastman School Director had met the President of the United States. Also present was Maestro Arthur Fiedler, conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.\u00a0 Photographs of the three men in conversation were printed in newspapers across the nation that evening and the following day.[1]<\/a><\/sup>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” gap=”20″ equal_height=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1731093341024{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1731528215801{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image onclick=”link_image” image=”23275″ img_size=”medium” style=”vc_box_outline” border_color=”#000000″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u25ba \u00a0 Photo printed in The Evening Star, September 10, 1956
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1731528223642{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_single_image onclick=”link_image” image=”23276″ img_size=”medium” style=”vc_box_outline” border_color=”#4C4848E6″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u25ba Photo printed in the Rochester Times-Union, September 11, 1956<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1729000374562{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1788548915811{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”]Why this meeting, why were the two musicians Hanson and Fiedler in the Oval Office with the President?\u00a0 The reason that was publicly promoted in the press is that the two men were presenting President Eisenhower with a new recording, The President\u2019s Favorite Music. <\/em>[2]<\/a><\/sup> \u00a0<\/em>Bolstering that message was the fact that Maestro Fiedler was the conductor on some of the LP\u2019s tracks.\u00a0 Dr. Hanson, for his part, was likely not there to represent the Eastman School of Music, but rather, the National Music Council, of which he had been President since 1946.\u00a0 President Eisenhower had just recognized the National Music Council by signing legislation that had granted it a Congressional Charter, thereby incorporating it. \u00a0The granting of the Charter capped ten years of effort on Capitol Hill by many, including Hanson.<\/p>\n

The National Music Council<\/a>, founded in 1940, is a voluntary non-profit membership association representing some 50 musical organizations in the U.S., including some of the bigger ones that one can think of\u2014NASM, MTNA, and MENC.\u00a0 The NMC\u2019s mission is spelled out on its website, which emphasizes six action points that cover music teaching and learning in schools; the protection of creative and intellectual property rights; providing member organizations with a forum for the exchange of information; speaking with a unified voice when collective expression is determined to be the most advantageous; reporting on concerns of importance to the membership; and encouraging the development of the art of music and fostering the highest professional standards throughout the music community.\u00a0 Further, the NMC has been the official U.S. representative to the International Music Council for over seventy years.<\/p>\n

During Howard Hanson\u2019s ten years as President of the NMC, he had actively advocated for the Congressional Charter, including speaking before Congressional committees. [3]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0 Bills had been introduced before 1956, but none had progressed to the point of an actual vote on the floors of Congress.\u00a0 The time was finally right in 1956, when a new bill (H.R. 8110) was actively supported by influential members of the 84th<\/sup> Congress.\u00a0 The House of Representatives passed the bill on May 21st and the Senate had passed it on July 23rd; President Eisenhower signed the legislation on August 1st.\u00a0 President Eisenhower\u2019s statement on signing the legislation is worth including in its entirety:<\/p>\n

In approving the bill (H.R. 8110) to incorporate the National Music Council, I wish to salute musicians and the important part they play in the life of our people.\u00a0 American music has brought us pleasurable distinction at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

Congress has chartered the National Music Council because of its important and effective role as a central body representing virtually all of the major voluntary musical organizations in our country.\u00a0 Its members include symphony orchestras, song writers, choruses, educational associations, publishers, labor unions, music clubs, and others.\u00a0 Thus the National Music Council is truly representative of the American way of life, in which music can flourish as it should in a free democratic society, as a voluntary activity under the nourishment and control of private citizens.<\/p>\n

Millions of Americans are engaged in the creation, performance and active appreciation of music.\u00a0 Indeed it is a rare day when any one of us does not hear some form of music; it is hard to imagine our lives without it.\u00a0 The enjoyment of music\u2014speaking for myself, at least\u2014has a moral and spiritual value which is unique and powerful.\u00a0 IOt reaches easily and quickly across lingual, racial and national barriers.\u00a0 The development of American music, and the native development of any art, is therefore the development of a national treasure. [4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Hanson greeted this news with enthusiasm and gratitude.\u00a0 He was quoted as saying, \u201cThis recognition comes at a very opportune time.\u00a0 Music is having its problems, as we in Rochester well know.\u00a0 People are taking a closer look at these problems, which affect such matters as the support of symphony orchestras.\u00a0 This action by congress and the President will give music a real shot in the arm by emphasizing the essential place of music in the life of the nation.\u00a0 Although it makes no provision for the appropriation of funds for music, it none the less gives an official standing to music that will greatly help n the advancement of worthwhile musical projects.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Hanson had received the summons to the White House entirely unexpectedly while vacationing on Bold Island, his island retreat off the coast of Maine.\u00a0 Suddenly that Sunday morning, a small boat with an outboard motor drew up at the dock and an excited young man jumped out bearing a message from the city manager of Stonington, the nearest town. The message was succinct:\u00a0 \u201cPresident Eisenhower wants to see you Monday morning at 10 o\u2019clock.\u201d\u00a0 \u2014Whereupon Hanson was obliged to make a hurried dash to Washington, D.C. by boat, car, and then airplane. Not having anticipated a White House engagement when packing for his vacation, Hanson was forced to choose from a limited assortment of clothes, taking his one rumpled suit (which would have to be drycleaned urgently on arrival in Washington); a borrowed tie; and a pair of canvas shoes with rubber soles.\u00a0 Hanson would later note that the [attendant] who met him on his arrival in Washington, D.C. had cast a somewhat questioning look at his appearance. [6]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 In any event, Hanson regarded the meeting with President Eisenhower as a success, a positive outcome of the efforts to win recognition for the National Music Council.<\/p>\n

The meeting with President Eisenhower was, to be certain a source of immense personal satisfaction for Howard Hanson. For the record, Hanson had a second, and more purely political, association with President Eisenhower at this time.\u00a0 That summer, in August, 1956, Hanson had been named to the newly organized Committee of the Arts and Sciences for Eisenhower (CASE) that was working for President Eisenhower\u2019s re-election.[7]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0The specific objective of CASE was to canvass professionals in the fields of education, literature, science, theater, music, and other arts, segments of the electorate that would normally lean Democratic.\u00a0 The group\u2019s national co-chairs were actress Helen Hayes and Professor Harry Carman, Dean Emeritus of Columbia College; the group included such distinguished individuals as Dr. Isidore Rabi, the 1944 Nobel laureate in physics and professor of physics at Columbia University; Dr. Detlev Bronk, the then-President of the National Academy of Sciences; and several college and university presidents. \u00a0The prominent musicians in the group included not only Hanson but also Maestro Eugene Ormandy of The Philadelphia Orchestra.\u00a0 The formation of CASE was widely reported in the press, and further news of the group\u2019s activity would appear as the election campaign wore on.\u00a0 \u00a0Hanson\u2019s involvement with CASE marked the first time that he would be openly associated with a partisan political candidate.\u00a0 Moreover, Hanson\u2019s efforts on President Eisenhower\u2019s behalf were undertaken with explicit use of his professional affiliation with the Eastman School of Music, including sending letters above his signature on Eastman School letterhead. [8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Besides meeting President Eisenhower in 1956, Howard Hanson would enjoy later opportunities to meet other heads of government.\u00a0 In December, 1956, he was a guest of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles at a Washington, D.C. dinner honoring Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India; in November, 1961, he was a guest of President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy at a White House dinner honoring violoncellist Pablo Casals [9]<\/a><\/sup>;\u00a0 in December, 1961, during the Eastman Philharmonia\u2019s 1961-62 tour, he had an audience with Archbishop Makarios III, President of the Republic of Cyprus; in May, 1963, he met (former) President Eisenhower a second time, this time in Rochester on the occasion of W. Allen Wallis\u2019 inauguration as President of the University of Rochester; in June, 1964, he was a guest of President and Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson at a White House dinner honoring violinist Mischa Elman; and in January, 1969, he met the newly inaugurated President Richard Richard Nixon, to whose inauguration Hanson had been invited.<\/p>\n

As the record shows, Howard Hanson was a public man in numerous more ways than has generally been known to the musical community.\u00a0 In demeanor, statement, and conviction, he represented ably and well all of the institutions and organizations with which he was affiliated throughout his long career.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1729000374562{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1788531050637{margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”]<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Among them were The Evening Star<\/em> (Washington, D.C.), the Rochester Times-Union, <\/em>and the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, <\/em>all preserved in Scrapbook 17, Howard Hanson Collection, accession no. 997, 12, Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0 The recording had been the idea of George R. Marek of RCA Victor.\u00a0 It contained ten tracks, including a selection from George Gershwin\u2019s Porgy and Bess <\/em>\u00a0conducted by Maestro Fiedler;\u00a0 the spiritual \u201cHe\u2019s got the whole world in His hands\u201d sung by contralto Marian Anderson;\u00a0 the main theme from the motion picture High Noon; <\/em>\u00a0and Beethoven\u2019s Coriolan <\/em>Overture.\u00a0 The recording was detailed in the press.\u00a0 \u201cEisenhower gets record album of favorite music\u201d in The Evening Star <\/em>(Washington, D.C.), September 10, 1956; and, \u201cPresident presented with record album\u201d in The Wilmington <\/em>(Delaware) News, <\/em>September 11, 1956.\u00a0 Scrapbook 17, Howard Hanson Collection, accession no. 997.12, Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Speaking on one occasion before a Congressional committee, Hanson based his argument on three points (on which he duly elaborated): that music as an art is important to the people of the U.S.A.; that a Federal Charter for NMC would have significant value for the development of music in the nation; and, that the NMC was the proper organization to be recognized with a Charter.\u00a0 Howard Hanson Collection, accession no. 2005\/3\/25, box 35\/126.\u00a0 Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u201cEisenhower signs National Music Council Charter bill\u201d in Musical Courier, <\/em>vol. 154, no. 3 (September, 1956), page 7.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> \u201cNewly signed music bill opportune, says Hanson\u201d in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, <\/em>August 4, 1956, preserved in Scrapbook 17, Howard Hanson Collection, accession no. 997.12, Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Hanson later described the 1956 meeting with President Eisenhower in his column \u201cCherished Memories\u201d in the Rochester Times-Union, <\/em>April 7, 1969, which was printed shortly after former President Eisenhower\u2019s passing.\u00a0 Preserved in the Rochester Scrapbook March-May 1969, Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0Numerous press items detailing CASE are preserved in Scrapbook 17, Howard Hanson Collection, accession no. 997.12, Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library. \u00a0These include:\u00a0 \u201cArts-for-Ike Group\u201d, Variety <\/em>(New York), August 8, 1956;\u00a0 \u201cGOP seeks \u2018Egghead\u2019 votes, too,\u201d Corpus Christie <\/em>(Texas) Caller,\u00a0 <\/em>August 8, 1956;\u00a0 \u201cDr. Hanson gets post with group boosting Ike\u201d in the Rochester Times-Union, <\/em>August 16, 1956;\u00a0 \u201cDr. Hanson to head Arts, Sciences unit\u201d in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, <\/em>August 16, 1956;\u00a0 \u201cNew unit for Ike bids for the \u2018Egghead\u2019 vote\u201d in the Minneapolis <\/em>\u00a0(Minnesota) Morning Tribune, <\/em>August 8, 1956;\u00a0 and, \u201cGOP sets out to win \u2018egghead\u2019 vote\u201d in The Philadelphia Inquirer,\u00a0 <\/em>August 8, 1956. \u00a0Hanson\u2019s prominence in national music circles guaranteed him mention in the national press coverage of CASE.<\/span><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> CASE file, box 18\/37 in Series 2: Correspondence, the Howard Hanson Collection, accession no. 997.12, Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a>\u00a0 On the following day, President Kennedy conferred with Hanson and with representatives of the National Cultural Center on general cultural problems and programs.\u00a0 \u201cCasals \u2018astonishing\u2019 Hanson says\u201d in the Rochester Tmes-Union, <\/em>November 14, 1961.\u00a0 Rochester Scrapbook October-November-December, Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1658327150379{background-color: #f4f4f4 !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1726852979961{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_empty_space]\n\n\n<\/svg>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1631195300893{margin-top: 40px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_basic_grid item=”17490″ post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”3″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1788537794966-07284f78-0a2b-0″ taxonomies=”18″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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