February 2009 marks two important anniversaries for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. February 1 was the 150th birthday of Victor Herbert, the composer of operettas including Naughty Marietta, Sweetheart, and The Red Mill who was instrumental in establishing ASCAP. February 13 is the 95th anniversary of the formal founding of the society envisioned by Herbert and a small group of composers, lyricists, and music publishers at New York’s Claridge Hotel in 1914. Victor Herbert, born in Dublin, Ireland in 1859, trained as a cellist at Stuttgart Conservatory and played in Johann Strauss’s orchestra in Vienna. After coming to the United States with his wife, soprano Therese Foerster, he conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony and his own Victor Herbert Orchestra; he wrote 43 operettas as well as numerous instrumental works, including his best known, the Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor. ASCAP made it possible for music creators in the United States to be compensated for the public performance of their works in accordance with U.S. Copyright Law.
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