Arthur Fiedler

Pictured on one of a set of eight 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the "Legends of American Music" series, issued 12 September 1997, celebrating "Classical Composers & Conductors". Others honored in this issue are Leopold Stokowski, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Samuel Barber, Ferde Grofé Sr., Charles Ives and Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

Five years later he began the Explanade Concerts, a series of free outdoor performances of the Boston Symphony, and the next year he became conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, which consisted of members of the Boston Symphony, and remained its conductor until 1979. Under his leadership the orchestra became one of the most recognizable and popular in the world; Fiedler didn't want it to have the image of a staid, stuffy, stereotypical "long-hair" chamber orchestra, and his innovative programs of classical music, Broadway show tunes, folk songs, the works of contemporary composers and jazz attracted generations of fans, and both the orchestra and Fiedler himself became icons among music fans. They regularly performed concerts on PBS (Public Broadcasting System), attracting a much wider audience than most orchestras ever received.

Has a bridge in Boston named for him. The Arthur Fiedler Footbridge crosses Storrow Drive and provides access to the Charles River Esplanade, the site of the famous Boston Pops Fourth of July concerts Fiedler initiated in 1974.

He and the Pops Orchestra were awarded a Peabody Award in 1971 for their performances on educational television.

Is the 1960 recipient of the prestigious Connor Award given by the brothers of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also an honorary brother of the fraternity.

Conducted the world premiere of Walter Piston's ballet "The Incredible Flutist" in 1938.

His recording of "Jealousy" (or "Jalousie") was released in Australia and New Zealand on the "His Master's Voice" record label, as were most of his 78-rpm discs. "Jealousy" sold more than one million copies in Australia between 1935 and 1952. His music remains popular in Australia with a number of LP titles re-issued in recent years.

He made the Boston Pops into one of the most famous and recorded orchestras in the United States, conducting it for nearly 50 years (1930-1979).

In 1924 he organized the Boston Sinfonietta, a chamber music group, and toured with them for several years.

As a violist, took part in the first recording sessions by an American symphony orchestra. This took place when the Boston Symphony Orchestra, under [error] (whom Fiedler idolized), made their first recordings for Victor at Camden, New Jersey, in September of 1917.

His family was musically inclined, and he traveled with them to Vienna, Austria, in 1910. The next year he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin and stayed there for four years, studying violin and piano. It was also where he took up conducting. He returned to the US and his hometown of Boston, joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a violinist.

Musician and conductor Arthur Fiedler was born on December 17, 1894, in Boston, Massachusetts.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1626 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.