The Songwriters Hall of Fame was saddened to learn of the passing of 2017 Abe Olman Publisher Award recipient, Caroline Bienstock. She served as a Board Member of SHOF for many years, and she will be deeply missed.
Caroline Bienstock, a respected music publisher, attorney, business leader, daughter, sister, mother, and grandmother, passed away surrounded by family and friends on September 1st at home. She was 68.
A New York City native, Caroline was born into one of the great music-business families of the twentieth century. Her father, Freddy Bienstock, was the legendary music publisher and founder of Carlin America, the company he named for Caroline. Her mother, Miriam Bienstock, was one of the original founders of Atlantic Records. From them, Caroline inherited not only a deep understanding of music, rights, and publishing, but also a fierce respect for songs, songwriters, and the business structures that allow creative work to endure.
Caroline graduated cum laude from Yale College, earned her law degree from Boston University School of Law, and later received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining the family business, she practiced law at Seyfarth Shaw Fairweather & Geraldson and worked at Goldman Sachs.
As President and Chief Executive Officer of Carlin America, Caroline oversaw all aspects of the family’s music publishing business, including catalog growth, licensing, administration, writer in development, film music acquisitions, and the company’s European and Nashville operations. She carried forward a catalog and a legacy associated with some of the most important songs and songwriters in American popular music, Broadway, film, classical, country, and standards.
Caroline was widely regarded in the music publishing world as a serious, principled, and highly capable steward of songs. In 2017, she received the Abe Olman Publisher Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, an honor given to publishers whose work has helped bring world-renowned songs to the public and furthered the careers of songwriters. She also served on the boards of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the National Music Publishers Association, the Association of Independent Music Publishers, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and was a member of the Copyright Society and the Entertainment and Sports Law section of the New York State Bar Association.
To those who loved her, Caroline was far more than her accomplishments. She was the beloved matriarch of a large blended family, raising three children and three step-children at her childhood home in Manhattan and homestead in upstate New York. Famous for her indefatigable intellect and as a loquacious lover of language, she was a source of support and wisdom for the many who called her a friend. Unmistakable and unmissable, Caroline cut a figure wherever she went. A lifelong athlete, skier, and marathon runner, she maintained the same fighting spirit in a decades-long battle with ALS.
Caroline is survived by her husband, Douglas Rodriguez; her children and children-in-law, Theodora (wife of Jordan), Francesca, Lily, Max (husband of Olenka), Ezekiel, and Olivia; her granddaughters Arcadia and Liora; and her brother, Robert Bienstock. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the ALS Association and/or Target ALS, in honor of Caroline’s life and legacy.
Caroline’s life was shaped by music, but her legacy is larger than any catalog. She helped preserve songs, protect songwriters, and carry forward a family tradition that changed American music. To her family and friends, she leaves something even more personal: the memory of her intelligence, strength, taste, loyalty, and love.