After being recognized around the world for contributions in music research, professor emeritus Jan Bach now is being recognized in his own community. Bach is among nine 2004 inductees into the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame.

The Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame is an organization that honors people who have attained a national or international reputation in the arts and who have a connection to the Fox Valley area by birth, residence, education or service.

Bach is being inducted into the hall of fame for his achievements as a composer. His extensive list of achievements include six separate nominations for the Pulitzer Prize in music and first place in the New York City Opera Composition Competition in 1980 for “The Student from Salmanca,” which was performed at Lincoln Center in New York.

NIU music professor Robert Fleisher nominated Bach for the award.

“He has earned so many awards, commissions, prizes and accolades that there was no question in my mind that he merited induction into the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame,” Fleisher said. “He’s the model of a lifelong learner, an accomplished artist-musician who also devoted extraordinary time and energy to his role as an educator.”

The mission of the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame is to remember famous artists of the past, celebrate the outstanding artists of the present and inspire future artists to one day become icons of the arts in the Fox Valley area.

Members are inducted into the hall of fame every two years. Nominations are taken for those accomplished in the disciplines of visual arts, literary arts and performing arts or as educators, curators or benefactors.

“I find [Bach] to be terrifically professional and inspiring. He surely embodies the type of person we want to find and recognize,” said Susan Starrett, president of the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame.

From 1962 to 1965, Bach played French horn with the U.S. Army Band in Washington, D.C., including a performance at President John F. Kennedy’s funeral. In 1966, he began teaching at NIU, where he has been named a presidential research professor and a distinguished research professor.

As a professor, Bach used weekends and nights to write his music around a busy teaching schedule, he said. He said he attributes much of his inspiration from hearing the live music of NIU’s students and staff and from working with the performers who play his music.

“It is a great honor to be recognized by your community,” Bach said. “So often they say people are more appreciated elsewhere, and in the community day after day, people take you for granted.”

Bach’s induction will culminate April 22 with an awards banquet at Walter Payton’s Roundhouse in Aurora. He will be presented with an honorary certificate, a bronze medallion and a hall of fame plaque to be housed permanently at the Paramount Arts Center in Aurora.