Each year the RI President Elect-Nominee is approached by
the Chair of our fellowship, the International Fellowship of
Rotarian Musicians (IFRM). We meet with the Prez-Elect
Nominee and offer our services to write and produce a theme
song (he/she chooses the theme, genre of music, etc.) and
then, as an IFRM service project, we identify a composer
(usually an IFRM member and professional musician), write
the tune, and publish it. The theme song is introduced at
the International Assembly in January.
I have copies of all the theme songs since 1978. There were
no official theme songs for RI Presidents M.A.T. Capras
(86-87), Carlo Ravizza (99-00), or Frank Devlyn (00-01).
Richard King (01-02) wrote the words to his own theme song,
Rotary's Business. There was then a period when RI
Presidents chose not to have a theme song (02 to 07). Then,
IFRM member Paul Bordeleau composed
Rotary Shares
for RI President Wilfrid Wilkinson.
D.K. Lee's (08-09) theme song, Make Dreams Real,
was composed by IFRM past chair and current Rotary World
Choir Director, Chungsam Doh. Lastly, incoming RI
President John Kenny (09-10) has chosen to not have a
presidential theme song.
IFRM Chair Susan DuPree and I will be meeting with Mr.
Klinginsmith in Birmingham in two weeks to offer our
assistance in producing a theme song for his year as RI
President....stay tuned!
Posted 2 June 2009 by
RGHF webmaster
Jack Selway, USA
