It’s a tired cliche, but dreams do come true.

Kenneth Jensen, retired Austin Public Schools music educator, will realize his dream when the 2009 Big Nine Music Festival is held at Austin High School May 1.

That’s when the AHS Music Hall of Fame debuts.

Jensen created it.

“I had been thinking and dreaming about a Music Hall of Fame for 15 years,” he recalled. “Then, it would slip to the back burner and then I would think about it again.

“Finally, I decided I should do something or forget about it,” Jensen admitted.

Fortunately for the decades of music excellence in the Austin Public School District, Jensen acted.

A committee was created and along with Jensen they began to research AHS students with music backgrounds and their careers after high school graduation.

Ninety candidates surfaced after the first examination. Then, the list was narrowed to 40 and finally 10 selected.

Permission came from school administration and the Austin School Board and the plan proceeded.

The selection committee included Brian Johnson, Brian Koser, Coni Nelson, Sue Radloff, David Jordahl, Conrad Muzik, Dave Kallman, Janet Gilbertson, Mary Hagan and also Jensen, who taught music for 34 years before retiring. Fred Nyline and Jim Wheeler, former AHS band directors, assisted the committee.

Once the selections were made, Jensen went to Bruce Anderson, interim superintendent, and Brad Bergstrom, AHS principal, to finalize details, including a photo gallery on one of the doors to Knowlton Auditorium, where the AHS musicians first took the stage.

There will be a banquet for the inductees, during this year’s Big Nine Music Festival, and they will be announced to all at the festival’s grand concert.

Jensen said the selection committee members were pleased with the list of inductees. “Oh, my yes,” he said. “These are all very well qualified people, who did the most with their music skills in school and college and beyond.”

The inductees include:

Allen A. Scholl, a 1932 AHS graduate, who played E-flat clarinet with the concert and marching bands under the direction of C. Vitorio Sperati, a co-founder of the Big Nine Music Festival. Scholl taught music at high schools in Minnesota and Montana and colleges in Wisconsin and New Mexico.

Ben Bednar, a 1946 AHS graduate, played the clarinet in bands directed by Sperati. Bednar also played saxophone as a high school musician. Bednar started playing professionally in 1947 with several bands until he was drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces in 1950 during the Korean War. When he returned to Austin after the war, Bednar was asked by Sperati to play in the Austin City Band. He also played in the Albert Lea City band, Chatfield Brass Band, Austin Symphony Orchestra fro 43 years, Miss Minnesota Pageant Band, Austin Community Band, Austin Jazz Band and AHS Alumni Band. The Austinite played with 22 different dance bands in his career and remains active in two trios and a 10-piece band. Bednar has also played at churches and taught hundreds to play the clarinet and saxophone in the last 55 years.

Robert D. Mix, a 1949 AHS graduate. Following graduation, he studied music at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. He was a member and soloist with the Nordic Choir and also a member of the Norseman Quartet. After graduate work, Mix started teaching in Glenwood and Duluth school districts. In Mix’s 34-year career teaching vocal music, his choirs have performed throughout the Midwest, on the White House lawn, and Europe, Mexico and Canada.

Martha Moe Krueger, a 1956 AHS graduate. A winner of the Vernita Rich Talent Scout Contest while in high school, Krueger appeared on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour television show and also appeared at the Minneapolis Aquacentenial before moving to Texas following graduation and studying music in college and beginning a busy career in stage productions there.

Marlou Garbisch Johnston, an AHS class of 1960 graduate, is one of three Garbisch family sisters to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Johnston played the violin and viola while in high school and studied at the Interlochen Music Camp. After college graduation, she performed with the Lyric Opera and Grant Park orchestras, Chicago Symphony and was concertmaster and soloist with the Chicago Civic Orchestra. Twelve years ago, she co-founded Trio Chicago and Friends, a non-profit group of musicians who travel to Third World nations promoting music diplomacy.

Mimi Garbisch Carlson, a 1962 graduate, performed with the AHS band and orchestra. A flutist, Carlson taught the instrument at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill before becoming flute instructor at Santa Clara University in California. She has been principal flutist for the Ballet San Jose in California since 1990 and plays both flute and piccolo for the Symphony Silicon Valley.

Marsha Garbisch Harbison, an AHS class of 1963 graduate, studied violin with Sister Genovef and played in the AHS and Pacelli orchestras as well as the Austin Symphony Orchestra. She continued her music education at the Julliard School in New York, where she earned a master’s degree and also played in a string quartet. Today, Harbison is assistant concertmistress of the Springfield, Mass. Symphony Orchestra. She is the founder and artistic director of the Longmeadow, Mass. Chamber Music Society, now in its 26th year. She has organized a “Three Sisters” benefit concert for the last 10 years for the Adriondak Nature Conservancy.

Daniel Kallman, a 1974 AHS graduate, called his music education in Austin Public Schools the “most nurturing and stimulating a young boy with a love of music could have asked for.” Kallman furthered his music composition education at Luther College and the University of Minnesota. Kallman’s compositions for orchestras, winds and choirs have been published and performed frequently. The National Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Symphony have all performed compositions written by the AHS graduate.

Blair Lawhead, a 1981 AHS graduate, went to the Indiana School of Music, where his father, Donaldson, attended as well as a brother, Brandon. He also attended the Manhattan School of Music and became a member of violin faculties in Ohio and New York. His orchestra experiences include performances with 12 different professional ensembles. He has played the violin in 17 commercial experiences. He has also performed with top recording artists and made several television appearances.

Robert Phillip Burkhart, a member of the AHS class of 1992, studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later Mannes College, where he earned his master’s of music degree in 2000. Burkhart has many orchestral experiences and is presently with the American Symphony, New York Symphony Ensemble and others in New York City. The cellist is presently on the faculty of the Point Counter Point Chamber Music Festival. Earlier this year, Burkhart was named an affiliate artist with the Syracuse University Symphony.

According to Jensen, eight of the 10 inductees will be present for the May 1 ceremony.