Alumni Gazette

Eastman Graduate Earns Country ‘Fame’

FAMOUS: Jim Foglesong ’50E, pictured in the rotunda of the Country Music Association’s Hall of Fame, and singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson were the hall’s only two inductees this year. (Photo courtesy of Country Music Association)

One of the newest members of the Country Music Association’s Hall of Fame has Rochester connections. Jim Foglesong ’50E, a longtime top record executive based in Nashville who also teaches at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, was formally inducted in November as part of the music association’s annual awards show on CBS. Foglesong, who used his G.I. Bill benefits to attend the Eastman School, was handpicked in 1953 to start Epic Records, a sister label of Columbia. He later served as president of MCA Nashville and Capitol Records Nashville. “I’m sure I’m the first [Eastman School] grad to be in the Country Music Hall of Fame,” Foglesong told the Vanderbilt student newspaper last fall.