The Classical Music Guide Forums

It hardly seems possible that on April 1, it has been two years since our beloved founder, Ward Botsford, passed away. Responsible for producing some of music's finest recordings on a wide variety of labels, Ward was as young at heart as he always appeared in person. I fondly remember my many visits to his home in Pound Ridge, NY where his wife, Lynn, and he rolled out the red carpet to his guests. For those interested in recalling Ward's memory, I again post the obituary notice that appeared in The New York Times:

Ward Botsford, Classical Music Maven and
Publisher of ClassicalMusicGuide.com, Dies at 76

Ward Botsford, Grammy award winning classical and spoken arts record producer, died on Thursday [April 1, 2004] at New York Hospital due to complications from MDS, a form of leukemia. He was 76.

Botsford was considered by many to be the penultimate classical music maven. His extensive recording work with many of the great classical music performers of our time included Sir Thomas Beecham, Guiomar Novaes, The London Symphony Orchestra, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera company and many others. Botsford's work was produced on a variety of labels including Urania Records, Vox Productions (with which he was Vice President and co-owner), and Arabesque Records (Botsford founded Arabesque Records in 1980).

In a December 1987 article in the NY Times, Botsford was referred to as a man "who brings a happy combination to his job: 30 years of practical experience in the classical record business together with a collector's enthusiasm and knowledge of the field." Botsford pioneered the reissuing of historical recordings, discovering overlooked gems of past repertoire as well as championing unusual works of new and upcoming talents.
Prior to founding Arabesque, Botsford's career included a wide variety of spoken arts productions for radio, film and records. As Producer/Director of Caedmon Records, he produced and directed numerous plays and book adaptations including Death of a Salesman with Lee J. Cobb and the original RCS production of Marat/Sade. His radio work included writing and directing programs with stars such as Mike Douglas, Carol Channing, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mathis, Harry Chapin and Tammy Grimes. Botsford served as a voice director for the Tristar animated film "Pound Puppies & the Legend of Big Paw".

Botsford received several Grammy awards as well as countless nominations for his spoken arts work. He received Grammys for Ages of Man with Sir John Gielgud, The Grapes of Wrath with Henry Fonda and Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein with Pat Carroll.
Botsford also forayed broadly into the realm of Science Fiction in a variety of ways. As a science fiction writer, he wrote "The Needle of Space", published in a collection of short stories entitled "Blue Book" in 1950. He co-authored the highly acclaimed 'Star Trek: Next Generation' episode "Rascals". Botsford was friend and colleague to many giants in science fiction publishing including Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert and Arthur C. Clarke - all of whom have dedicated various fiction works to him. Botsford's recording work included numerous science fiction classics such as Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" narrated by William Shatner (Captain Kirk of Star Trek), Ray Bradbury's "The Martin Chronicles" narrated by Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock of Star Trek) as well as "2010" and "2061" with the author, Arthur C. Clarke.

Botsford's interest in space travel was not all fictionally based. He collaborated with NASA in the sixties, recording the Mercury and Gemini flights for historical archives including the Friendship 7 mission flown by John Glenn. He was an honorary member of the Royal Order of Star-Riders, having flown in the U.S. Air Force's highest performing fighter in 1960 which then had the world's speed record of 1404 mph and altitude record of 91,243 feet. Botsford flew with a variety of NASA's celebrated astronauts including Neil Armstrong and Gordon Cooper. Botsford was also a founding member of several organizations that supported space science.

Botsford authored several books including "Archeology - Middle America", which received 22 printings, and "The Pirates of Penzance", a children's adaptation of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta for Random House. Botsford was considered an expert on Gilbert & Sullivan, serving as a consultant to Isaac Asimov's "Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan" published in 1988. Asimov dedicated the volume to Botsford, praising his expertise.

Ward Botsford also made considerable contributions to the world of children through copious recordings of favorite authors such as the complete Winnie the Pooh with Carol Channing, the Nutcracker with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas with narration by Christopher Plummer. He recorded a variety of albums with famous folk singer Oscar Brand that were directed for children. Botsford recorded many of Maurice Sendak's books as well including Where the Wild Things Are and Outside Over there. He also recorded the Broadway musical version of "Really Rosie" lyrics by Sendak with music by Carol King. Botsford produced hundreds of albums specifically for the children's market.

For Microsoft Network, he handled the Classical Music Forum for five years. Upon MSN's ending their content driven websites, Botsford opened ClassicalMusicGuide.com, a site that still sees thousands of visitors per month.

He is survived by his wife of almost 50 years, Lynn Botsford, as well as his daughters Diana Botsford and Andrea Botsford Castellano. Four grandchildren will also carry his memory forward: Ariana Botsford, Ashlee Castellano, Anthony Castellano and Michael Castellano.

The world will miss his great love of experiencing life at its fullest and his constant pursuit of knowledge.

Thank you, Lance, for posting that obituary of Ward Botsford - for some reason, I did not see it when it originally appeared but was exposed to Ward here online during his last few years.

An extraordinary range of accomplishments described here! Of course, his posts were always interesting and showed a certain charm of personality.

I'm glad that the obituary you quoted from the New York Times - is there an author known? - mentioned his founding of CMG, and many of us remember his cintributions here.

Looking back over a lifetime of experiences and organizations, one thought that keeps recurring is that nothing is ever permanent. So I believe that Ward would be pleased to know that CMG under the tender care of Lance and Corlyss is vigorous, growing, and benefiting from the contributions on the many veteran and more recent CMGers. Long many it continue!

My thanks as well, Lance. Ward was a spectacular music connoisseur, collector, and raconteur. Somehow I hadn't picked up on his love of space. What is strange is that NASA allowed those audio sfx recordings of takeoffs to be used by producers -- which I did to great effect in Mr. Bach Comes to Call. It's my favorite opening of a Classical Kids recording. And to think I sat with the man who did it! Don't we all remember Nonsuch! And Allegri. Fingering through records at $3.00. Am I dating myself here? Thinking of Ward, I remember his charming wife, the fall beauty of Connecticut woods, LPs piled so high you needed ladders to reach them, long candlelit dinners, and getting lost in the fog! (me, not him) Hats off to a courageous and original giant among producers!

Thanks, Lance. I have strong memories of e-mail exchanges with Ward and, unfortunately, we never met although we planned to a number of times.

He was a true gentleman who not only owned this board but shaped it as a model of civility for all.