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UD organist awarded grant to record CD
Herman will use the $5,000 award to cover part of the cost of making a CD recording of works by two German composers: Hugo Distler, who died in 1942, and his only student, Jan Bender. The Delaware State Arts Council is the advisory body to the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). The council advises DDOA on matters of arts policy, funding for the arts and other issues relevant to support for the arts in Delaware. “I was very pleased to learn of the award,” Herman, who was Bender’s student in composition at Wittenberg University in Ohio in 1964, said. “The letter from DDOA arrived on Christmas Eve! I'm honored to be among those chosen to receive this significant fellowship. I hope this will be a useful and timely project, since the centennials of Distler and Bender are coming up.” According to Kristin Pleasanton, art and artist services coordinator for DDOA, the highly competitive fellowship honors artists based on the quality of their work. Winners are judged by nationally recognized professionals in their artistic discipline residing outside the state of Delaware. The anonymous process ensures that the artistic work of each applicant is judged on its own merit. “As an individual artist, receiving a fellowship is the highest honor the state of Delaware gives to individual artists,” Pleasanton said. “It is very gratifying to give this honor to Dr. Herman, who adds so much to the richness of Delaware's arts community. The award honors and recognizes his talent and the high quality of his work as a musician.” Born in 1908, Hugo Distler became a famous teacher, choral director and one of the most gifted German composers of organ and church music in the first half of the 20th Century, Herman said. “Because of his early death, we can only imagine the masterworks that he might have written in later life,” Herman said of Distler. “Following Distler's death, Bender, who was a church musician in Germany, was able to supply German publishers with a wealth of musical composition. Although Bender's music was wholly original, it was imbued with certain characteristics of his teacher, especially the energetic rhythm and lively counterpoint. In this way, the Distler legacy was continued.” Herman said he will record organ pieces and choral works with the help of the UD Chorale in the summer and early fall. He will include his own original pieces and make a companion DVD with videos of some of the performances as well as images from the composers' lives and the German city of Luebeck, where the two worked. He said the recording project is special to him because he learned composition from Bender. Herman will record the CD on UD’s Jefferson Pipe Organ, a gift from Edward G. and Naomi L. “Wunnie” Jefferson that is housed in the Jefferson Music Gallery of Bayard Sharp Hall on the Newark campus. The organ was installed in 2000. Herman served as chairperson in UD’s Department of Music from 1987-2001. A native of Pennsylvania, he earned degrees from Wittenberg University, the University of Michigan and the University of Kansas. He pursued his interest in British music through study in England with the late Lady Jeans. The author of The Life and Work of Jan Bender, Herman has written many articles for professional journals. His compositions and editions have appeared in the catalogues of five American publishers. He has served on the faculties of four American Guild of Organists (AGO) regional events known as Pipe Organ Encounters, in Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore. He currently serves as AGO’s regional coordinator for education. Herman has been a church musician for more than 40 years. He is also a recitalist and performs regularly in the U.S. and abroad. He has played throughout northern Germany, twice in Berlin, in Dublin and in 11 cathedrals in England and Wales, including recitals in all four of London’s historical foundations: St. Paul’s, Westminster and Southwark cathedrals, and Westminster Abbey, as well as other prominent venues. His recording of organ works by Samuel Wesley at Coventry Cathedral was released in 2003. Article by Martin Mbugua |
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