1st Annual Western States' Fred Waring Music Workshop Records

Fredrick Malcolm Waring was born in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, on June 9, 1900 to Jesse Calderwood and Frank Waring. He was a popular musician, band leader, and radio-television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing." While a teenager, he and his brother founded the Waring-McClintock Snap Orchestra, which evolved into Fred Waring's Banjo Orchestra. His Banjo Orchestra eventually became so successful that he left school to tour with the band, which eventually became known as Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians. From 1923 until late 1932, "Waring's Pennsylvanians" were among Victor Records' best-selling bands.

In 1947, Waring organized the Fred Waring Choral Workshop at his Pennsylvania headquarters in Shawnee-on-the Delaware. At these sessions, talented musicians learned to sing with precision, sensitivity and enthusiasm. When these vocalists returned home and shared what they had learned with fellow musicians, Waring's approach to choral singing spread throughout the nation. The first Fred Waring Music Workshop in the western United States was held in June of 1968 as part of the University of Nevada's Summer Session curriculum. Waring taught and supervised these summer workshops for 37 years, until his death on July 29, 1984.