The Barbara Cass Award Fund, established in 2001 at The Pittsburgh Foundation, benefits The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. It funds the Barbara Cass Award for Vocal Excellence, which is presented annually to an outstanding member of the Junior Mendelssohn Choir.
The fund was created by C. Hax McCullough, former emeritus board member and president of the Mendelssohn Choir. McCullough, who died in 2007, was a long-time supporter of the arts in Pittsburgh.
A resident of Fox Chapel, McCullough's love of classical music began in his youth. McCullough played the violin in the Pittsburgh Public Schools' All-City High School Orchestra and continued to play throughout his lifetime. His firm, McCullough Communications, produced programs for the Pittsburgh Opera for 20 years, and he wrote several books chronicling the history of Pittsburgh, including that of the Opera and the Pittsburgh Symphony.
The Barbara Cass Award honors Cass, a longtime board member and executive director emeritus of the Mendelssohn Choir, who died in 1997. She founded the Junior Mendelssohn Choir and helped to find funding for the Children’s Festival Chorus. She was presented with a Mendelssohn Decoration for the Arts medal in 1996 for her decades of leadership. The Choir honors her “founding vision and zeal” with the Barbara Cass Award.
Read more about C. Hax McCullough here.
Read more about Barbara Cass here.