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Home / Honorary Life Members

Honorary life membership is a highly prestigious recognition, bestowed on selected individuals for their dedication to music education and to ISME. It is conferred at the General Assembly, held at each biennial world conference.

Honorary life members must:

  • Be recognised as a genuinely outstanding music educator in at least one country
  • Have established a record of achievement and distinction
  • Have made contributions to music education that are of lasting value and that will likely be considered of importance by future music educators
  • Have been active in the Society for an extended period 

The nomination process requires the following:

  • Name and full contact details of the person who is submitting the nomination. Nominations can only be accepted from a current ISME member
  • The name and full contact details of the person being nominated
  • A copy of the curriculum vitae for the person being nominated
  • A narrative by the person who is submitting the nomination that provides information on the distinguished contribution of the person being nominated. Separate statements (in one document) must be provided on each of the four evaluative criteria for the award by indicating how the person being nominated is: recognised as a genuinely outstanding music educator in at least one country; has established a record of achievement and distinction; has made contributions to music education that are of lasting value and that will likely be considered of importance by future music educators; and as been active in the Society for an extended period.

Nominations are made by members each biennium and the process is implemented by a Standing Committee, under the responsibility of the Past President.

Honorary Life Members

 The following are Honorary Life Members: 

1980's

Arnold Bentley

1982

UK 

Edmund Cykler 

1982

USA

Marguerite Hood

1982

USA

Blanche Leduc

1982

France

Egon Kraus

1984

Germany 

Henning Bro Rasmussen

1984

Denmark

Bernhard Binkowski

1986

Germany

Rodolfo Zubrisky 

1988

Argentina

 

 

 

1990's

Shinichi Suzuki

1990

Japan

Jack Dobbs

1992

UK

Ellen Urho

1992

Finland

Katalin Forrai

1994

Hungary 

John Ritchie

1994

New Zealand

James Carlsen

1996

USA

Ronald Smith

1996

UK 

Yasuharu Takahagi

1996

Japan

Violeta Hemsy de Gainza

1998

Argentina

Don Robinson

1998

USA 

 

 

 

2000's

Robert Werner 

2000

USA 

Paul Lehman

2002

USA

Joan Therens

2002

Canada

Graham Bartle

2004

Australia

Ana Lucia Frega

2008

Argentina

Sylvia Schwarzenbach

2010

Switzerland 

 

 

 

2010's

Einar Solbu

2012

Norway

Susan Hallam

2014

UK

Alda de Jesus Oliveira

2014

Brazil

Gary McPherson

2016

Australia

Wendy Sims

2016

USA

Graham Welch

2016

UK

Clifford Madsen

2018

USA

Marie McCarthy

2018

Ireland/USA

 

 

 

2020's

Liane Henschke 

2020

Brazil

Margaret Barrett

2022

Australia

Tadahiro Murao

2024

 Japan

 

 

 

Attached below is an extract from the ISME Policy Manual, relating to the process for seeking nominations and then reviewing and bestowing honorary life membership.

Policy: Honorary Life Membership Process. Download

 

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