NEWS RELEASE
The Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities
Qunnipiac College
Office of Public Relations
November 24, 1993

SINGER JOHN DENVER TO BE HONORED IN HAMDEN CEREMONY

HAMDEN, CONNECTICUT - One of the world's best known and 
best-loved performers, John Denver, will be presented with the 
Albert Schweitzer Music Award in recognition of a life's work 
dedicated to music and devoted to humanity, in a ceremony to 
be held at Quinnipiac College on December 1 at 7:00 pm in 
Alumni Hall.

Rhena Schweitzer Miller, daughter of Albert Schweitzer, will 
present the award to Denver, who will sing several of his own 
compositions about peace and the environment.  The program 
will also include the 40 voice Kodaly's Children's Chorus of 
the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, who will join 
Denver in his song "I Want To Live."  The Master of Ceremonies 
will be television actor Dennis Weaver.

The Albert Schweitzer Music Award is presented to outstanding 
musicians whose efforts to improve the welfare of humankind 
have ennobled the profession of music.  founded nearly two 
decades ago, the award was first presented to Isaac Stern on 
January 14, 1975, on the 100th birthday of Albert Schweitzer.  
Other recipients have been Katherine Dunham, Van Cliburn, 
Mstislav Rostropovich and Leonard Bernstein.

Beginning his career as a folk musician in the 1960's Denver's 
place in the music world is legendary. He is one of the top 
five recording artists in the sales of recordings. Throughout 
his career, many of his songs reflected the growing concern 
for the global environment - a theme that continues in both 
his art and life.

He has played to audiences on nearly every continent.  In 1984 
he was invited to perform in Russia by the Soviet Union of 
Composers, and in 1987, he returned there to do a benefit 
concert for the victims of Chernobyl.  He has served as a 
member of the Presidential Commission on World and Domestic 
Hunger, was one of the founders of The Hunger Project, and was 
a member of the fact-finding delegation that toured stricken 
African countries.

Denver was awarded the Presidential "World Without Hunger 
Award" and is a supporter of the National Wildlife Federation, 
Save the Children, The Cousteau Society and the Human/Dolphin 
Foundation.  In 1976 he co-founded The Windstar Foundation, 
which works towards a sustainable future for the world.

The Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities is a 
non-profit, non-governmental, non-partisan organization 
affiliated with the United Nations. It is dedicated to 
advancing - through programs of action, research, education, 
and publication - the philosophy, ideals, and humanitarianism 
of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Albert Schweitzer in the 
areas of his own endeavors: Health Care and Medical Relief, 
Music and Arts, Ecology and the Environment, Peace Issues, 
Human Rights, Animal Issues, and Theology and Ethics.  Since 
April of 1993, the Institute has been affiliated with 
Quinnipiac College, and has moved its offices, archives and 
library, conference and lecture space, and a permanent 
Schweitzer exhibition to the Hamden campus.

The Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities
515 Sherman Avenue
Hamden, COnnecticut 06514

Quinnipiac College
Office of Public Relations
Hamden, COnnecticut 06518-1940