Anchorage Daily News

Longtime Anchorage musicians Arthur and Eleanor Braendel have been selected for the 2008 Governor's Awards for the Arts Lifetime Achievement award.

The Braendels were among the handful of musical pioneers who started the Anchorage Symphony in 1946; he's a cellist, she's a violist.

They homesteaded in Eagle River in the mid-1940s when little more than a mud road connected the hamlet to Anchorage Civic Auditorium, where concerts took place.

They were admired for their dedication as much as for their artistry, never missing a performance or rehearsal for which they were scheduled -- even when bad weather kept everyone else home. They retired from the Symphony in 2006.

The couple donated land and established the Alaska Fine Arts Academy in Eagle River, which supports a wide range of events and classes in music, drama, dance and the visual arts.

Other recipients, announced by the Alaska State Council on the Arts on Thursday include the Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, arts booster and educator Cristine Crooks of Juneau, painter Dan DeRoux, also of Juneau, and traditional Native artist Gertrude Svarny of Unalaska.

The awards will be presented at a dinner at the Anchorage Marriott Downtown on Oct. 23.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

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