The Austin High School Music Hall of Fame has announced its 2012 inductees. Though many candidates were considered, only three were inducted: Alan Anderson of the Class of 1968, David Lloyd Swenson of the Class of 1977 and Kaye L. Perry for the Class of 1979.

A banquet will be held for these new members and their guests at the Hormel Historic Home. They will be introduced to the public at the Spring Orchestra Concert, held in Knowlton Auditorium at 7 p.m. May 14, following the banquet.

Kenneth Jensen, founder of the AHS Music Hall of Fame, will present the inductees. Each inductee will receive a plaque by Sue Radloff and a certificate for outstanding achievement by Principal Brad Bergstrom.

Alan Anderson

Following his graduation from Austin High School in 1965, Anderson received his associate degree from Austin State Junior College, his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and his master’s from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Anderson is retired from teaching and is a professional trombonist and music historian.

His teaching career was in Grand Marais, and Watertown, Wis. He is the past president and treasurer of the Wisconsin Youth Band Director’s Association, a member of the Wisconsin Music Educator’s Association for Middle Level Honors Band Project, conductor of the Southeastern Minnesota Honor Band in Austin and a conductor and soloist with numerous Wisconsin Bands.

He performed with the Guy Lombardo, Jan Garber, Dick Jurgens, and Eddie Howard orchestras. He recorded with many bands and orchestras, and has been a lecturer/performer for senior centers and special events around Wisconsin and Minnesota, specializing in big band music and American songwriters.

The awards presented to Anderson include the Wisconsin Area Music Industry Award for the Brass Player of the Year, Outstanding Teacher in Teaching Music Magazine, the Watertown Unified School District Teacher of the year and the Darcy Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching.

David Lloyd Swenson

Swenson started playing violin in the Austin Public School string program in the seventh grade. By eighth grade, he was losing interest and wasn’t keeping up with his class. His school director, David Jordahl, suggested he switch to viola in 10th grade. The larger instrument fit him better, as he later played in the Austin Symphony. He played guitar in the high school jazz band and sang in choir during his senior year.

Swenson joined Ben Bednar’s Dixielanders dance band his senior year and continued to play guitar with that group until 1987. He went to Luther College, graduating in 1981. He continued his education at Drake University in Des Moines, where he received his Master of Music Education Degree.

His first and only teaching position was in Boone, Iowa. Swenson enlarged the string programs at Boone, and his orchestras have received outstanding performance awards at the State Large Group Festivals.

He has arranged more than 100 pieces for his middle school and high school orchestras. He is currently a member of the National, Iowa, and Boone Education Associations, the Music Educator’s National Conference, the American String Teachers’ Association and the Iowa String Teachers’ Association. He served as President of the Iowa String Teachers’ Association. In 2009, David was selected as the Iowa String Teachers’ Teacher of the Year.

Swenson has also served as the choir director of the Augustana Lutheran Church Choir in Boone, played with the Austin Symphony, Iowa State College Symphony, Central Iowa Symphony, and the Boone Big Band and Community Theater.

Kaye L. Perry

Perry is a well-known Austin musician who has performed in Austin and the surrounding areas for more than 35 years. She plays the flute, oboe, bassoon, accordion, and piano. She has composed and arranged for Austin’s own lnSynque quartet, a Sweet Adeline Chorus, a commissioned piece for the Northwestern Singers and recorded the album “Heaven to Earth.”

She has performed in the Austin High School Orchestra, concert band, marching band, alumni marching band, Austin Symphony Chorus, Austin Big Band, Miss Austin Pageant singers and dancers, Austin Community College Briars, Michael Veldman and Friends Christmas Shows, numerous fundraisers, weddings and funerals, the Minnesota State Fair, has been handbell ringer and church director of musical groups.

She set a record for appearing in 37 separate plays/musicals in Riverland Community College Theatre. A few of the productions in which she appeared are “Sound of Music,” “Annie,” “Music Man,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Wizard of Oz.”