WASHINGTON, DC  -  James K. McCully, a former National Endowment for the Arts

Opera Musical Theater Fellow and On-Site Evaluator of professional opera and musical theater companies and their emerging artists training programs across the nation, has been named a recipient of the Signature Sinfonian Award by the National Offices of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. The Signature Sinfonian award recognizes alumni members who have achieved a high standard of accomplishment in their field or profession, thereby bringing honor to Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

The Signature Sinfonian represents an elite class of Sinfonians who exhibit a high standard of performance in their area of profession or service work. Nominees must exhibit courageous thinking and actions, vision and innovation, inspiring leadership, community involvement, and be a role model for future generations.

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is the world's oldest and largest secret national fraternal society in music. Sinfonia was born on October 6, 1898, at the New England Conservatory in Boston, when a group of thirteen young men under the guidance of Ossian Everett Mills "to consider the social life of the young men students of that institution [and] to devise ways and means by which it might be improved." Sinfonia became a national fraternity on October 6, 1900, with the admission of a group of men at the Broad Street Conservatory in Philadelphia. For over a century, Sinfonians in nearly every field of study and professional endeavor have transformed music in America. The opportunity of becoming a Sinfonian is offered to as many men as possible who, through a love for music, can assist in the fulfillment of the Fraternity's Object and ideals either by adopting music as a profession, or by working to advance the cause of music in America.