Multi-Grammy Award winner Michael Bolton and singer/songwriter/actor Mac Davis, along with Tennessee Gov. Phil pedesen and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, are among the presenters at the inaugural T.J. Martell Foundation/Nashville Honors Gala on March 25.
The festive black-tie event, to be held at the Loews Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel here, will honor four distinguished individuals for their humanitarian, philanthropic and career achievements. The Honors Gala benefits the T.J. Martell Foundation and its mission of support innovative research for leukemia, cancer and AIDS.
Bolton and Davis will honor Frances Preston, former president and CEO of BMI, who will be presented the Lifetime Music Industry Award for her years of service to the music industry and songwriters worldwide.
“We are honored that Mac and Michael, longtime friends of Frances Preston, will join us to honor her great contributions to the music industry,” said pian Philips, president of CMT (Country Music Television) and co-chairman of the 2009 Honors Gala. “The Honors Gala is lining up to an incredible evening, pinging together leaders from the music, political, medical and business communities of Nashville and the world.”
Bolton remains one of the most-successful male vocalists of his generation, having sold more than 53 million albums in his career. He has garnered, eight Top 10 albums, two No. 1 singles and has been awarded multiple honors, including BMI’s Songwriter of the Year, Song of the Year and Million-Air awards, ASCAP’s Writer and Publisher Awards and a Hitmaker Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was honored with the Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, Grammy Award for his performances of “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” (1989) and “When A Man Loves A Woman” (1991).
Davis’s career spans songwriting (“In the Ghetto” for Elvis Presley), singing (No. 1 pop hit with “Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me"), television as the host of his own NBC variety show (1974-76) and acting (“North Dallas Forty”). His 40-year career also includes a stint on poadway, portraying Will Rogers in “The Will Rogers Follies.” Davis is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the recording industry.
pedesen, now in his second term as governor of Tennessee, will be among the presenters who will honor former Vice President of the United States Al Gore with the Lifetime Humanitarian Award for his commitment to the global warming efforts to create awareness about man-made climate change and to create a better, cleaner environment.
Prior to his election as governor, pedesen served as mayor of Nashville from 1991 to 1999. Before entering public service, pedesen worked in the health care industry. In 1980, he created HealthAmerica Corp., a Nashville-based health care management company that eventually grew to more than 6,000 employees and traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was sold in 1986.
Nashville Mayor Karl H. Dean and Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos will present the Lifetime Philanthropic Award to Orrin Ingram, president and CEO of Nashville-based Ingram Industries, a privately held company with four operating divisions: Ingram Book Group, Ingram Marine Group, Lightning Source Inc. and Ingram Digital Group. Ingram is being honored for his dedication to helping others in the Nashville community and beyond.
Harold L. (Hal) Moses, M.D., director emeritus of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and director of the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories, will receive the Lifetime Medical Research Award for his dedication to cancer research. He will be honored by Jennifer Pietenpol, P.hD., current director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
Patron tables are available starting at $10,000 and include a cocktail reception, dinner, entertainment and the awards presentation. Individual tickets are $750 and $500 and may be purchased through the T.J. Martell Foundation by calling (615) 256-2002 or through the Honors Gala website at www.HonorsGala.org.
The T.J. Martell Foundation’s mission is to support innovative research for leukemia, cancer and AIDS through eight top research hospitals in the United States. The Foundation was started in 1975 and has raised more than $225 million for research.
In Nashville, the Foundation is dedicated to supporting cancer research at the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. |