UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 31, Page 1
May 12, 1994
Medal of Distinction for Delaware's 'Music Man'

     Of the many University music events that J. Robert King has attended
and performed in since he joined the Department of Music faculty nearly 50
years ago, Sunday night's performance by the University of Delaware Wind
Ensemble is sure to join King's pantheon of most memorable evenings.
     At the concert, King will be presented the University's Medal of
Distinction, which is presented to individuals in recognition of
professional achievements or public service of national or international
significance.
     The concert, scheduled at 8 p.m. in the Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy
E. du Pont Music Building, is free and open to the public. The Wind
Ensemble, under the direction of Robert Streckfuss, will perform works by
Ticheli, Holst and Nelson, and Cynthia Carr, assistant professor, will be
featured soloist in Concerto for Horn and Winds by Giovanni Cirri.
     A 1942 graduate of Oberlin College, King received his master's degree
from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.
     After teaching at Berea College and Eastern Illinois State Teachers
College, King came to Delaware in 1946 to establish a curriculum in
instrumental music education and applied music. He was responsible for
developing all related musical ensembles and, for the next 18 years, he
taught all the courses connected with these programs, including private
instruction.
     Some of the highlights of King's career include:

        * the first appearance of the University of Delaware Marching Band
          in 1947 with approximately 35 players (King directed the Marching
          Band until 1972);
        * the Contemporary Music Festival, which began in 1949, bringing to
          campus such distinguished guests as Aaron Copland, Howard Hanson,
          Norman Dello Joio, Virgil Thompson, Gunther Schuller and Vincent
          Persichetti;
        * organization of marching band clinics for high school and college
          band directors in the middle Atlantic states during the 1950s;
        * development of courses for the general student on "Music in
          American Culture," "History of Jazz" and "History of American
          Musical Theatre";
        * an excellence-in-teaching award in 1967; and
        * twice serving as acting chairperson of the department, as well as
          supervising final plans for the Amy E. du Pont Music Building in
          1970-71.

     During a sabbatical leave in the fall of 1978, King began work as
music editor for the Moravian Music Foundation in Winston-Salem, N.C. Since
then, he has scored and edited more than 40 previously unknown 18th-century
orchestral works, housed in the Fleisher Collection of the Free Library of
Philadelphia. New scores and sets of parts now make it possible to play
these works today.
     He retired in 1985 and was named professor emeritus, but his work
continued. In 1987, he developed a freshman honors colloquium, which
examined the impact of non-musical developments on the development and
recognition of 20th-century American composers and the education of the
American public.
     Since 1988, he has worked with Thomas Calhoun, professor of English,
on the poetry of 17th-century English writer Abraham Cowley. Calhoun is
chief editor of a six-volume study of the life and works of Cowley, and
King is the project's music editor. As a result of their work, a recording
of Cowley's The Mistress, was recently on compact disc in this country for
the first time.
     Active off the campus as well, King has had a close association with
the Brandywiners Ltd. for 50 years, including directing 14 shows at
Longwood Gardens and serving as music director of the Brandywiners Chorale.
He has been musical director for the Academy of the Dance performances of
the Nutcracker Ballet at the Wilmington Playhouse for 17 years and has
served as choir director at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Newark Methodist
Church and Aldersgate Methodist Church. He also organized the Junior High
School State Band in Delaware and served as guest conductor for state and
regional high school bands and orchestras in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey