San Bernardino Symphony’s music library receives donation of music from ‘The Bell Telephone Hour’ programs
The San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra's James K. Guthrie Music Rental Library recently received a gift of music from the Donald Voorhees Collection, donated by Michael Feinstein, principal pops conductor of the Pasadena POPS Symphony.
Feinstein is also founder of the Great American Songbook Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to preserving and promoting the music of the Great American Songbook.
The donated portion of the Voorhees collection is made up of 1,597 materials, including manuscripts of interlude performances from "The Bell Telephone Hour," written and arranged by the original composers and by Voorhees, according to a news release from the San Bernardino Symphony.
"The Bell Telephone Hour" was a weekly 30-minute concert series broadcast on the NBC Radio Network featuring classical, pops and light classical music conducted exclusively by Voorhees from April 29, 1940, until June 30, 1958.
Voorhees was also the inaugural conductor of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, a position he held from 1951 to 1983. After he died in 1985, his collection was acquired by Allentown's symphony library, but they faced space constraints and inadequate archival resources, according to the news release.
Allentown reached out to the Great American Songbook Foundation, leading to its acquisition of the collection in 2023. Not long after that, Michael Feinstein, a longtime San Bernardino Symphony supporter, contacted the symphony about its interest in the compositions.
"The Guthrie Rental Library is the perfect place for these classic, unique and rare manuscript arrangements. The most iconic 20th-century artists performed these scores, usually only once, on radio and television," Feinstein said in the news release.
"The music needed to find a home where it would be valued, preserved and once again made available to all and the Guthrie is an important and respected source for preserving and disseminating orchestral music," Feinstein said. "In addition, their numerous music programs for students mean that these rare works will find a new multi-generational audience. It's a great pleasure to know the music has found the right home."
The donation also includes parts of Feinstein's personal collection, including one-of-a-kind piano, violin and conductor scores.
Feinstein also plans to contribute American spirituals from "The Bell Telephone Hour" that he is still organizing, as well as stage band music from American studios such as Universal and Paramount, to support youth in music.
The collection was moved in August from Feinstein's Pasadena home to San Bernardino's Norman F. Feldheym Central Library, where the Guthrie collection is housed. Volunteers and Robert Mejia, manager of the music rental library, will catalog and organize the donation.
The James K. Guthrie Music Rental Library was established in 1994 as a gift from Guthrie, founder of the San Bernardino Symphony. Music from the collection is available for rental nationwide, supporting students, pre-career musicians, community orchestras and professionals.
