Welcome to A Tribute to Richard Westenburg
A memorial service, full of music, in celebration of the life of Richard Westenburg took place on Saturday, May 31, 2008, at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. It was attended by roughly 500 of Richard’s closest friends. The celebration continued at a reception in the Parish Hall following the service.
During the service, more than 80 members and alumni of the Musica Sacra Chorus sang several works, including Charles Ives’s “Abide with Me”, Heinrich Schutz’s “Selig sind die Toten”, Bach’s “Gratias Agimus Tibi” from the Mass in B Minor and “Ruht Wohl” from the St. John Passion. The chorus was joined in this last piece by a number of other singers who had sung with Richard in other capacities. Daniel Beckwith, Head of Opera Studies, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, accompanied the chorus.
Dave Brubeck and his son, Chris, played two pieces from Dave Brubeck’s “Mass to Hope: A Celebration”; Anthony Newman played Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major (the “St. Anne”); and John Weaver capped off the service with the postlude: his own “For all the Saints,” a synthesis of the familiar hymn tune and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Perhaps most stunning, in a service that was completely stunning from beginning to end, was the congregational hymn singing. Most of those present were accomplished singers, and the hymns were sung out to the rafters in glorious four-part harmony.
Musica Sacra thanks Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church for the use of the church’s facilities, its pastor, The Rev. Dr. Fred R. Anderson, for his kindness in working closely with the family and Musica Sacra to put this service together, and its music director, Dr. Andrew E. Henderson for the preludes, interlude, and marvelous hymn playing.
Over the many years of his career, Dick Westenburg touched the lives of countless people: many times that of the average person. We know that many of you would like to have a hand in an ongoing tribute to him. Whether you have a memory to share, comments, or observations, we encourage you to leave them here with us, for all to read. To leave your thoughts and read those of others, please click the “comments” link below.
Richard was a gift as a friend, an artist and so much more. We cannot imagine the world without him. Richard was one of the rare people who cannot be replaced.
We are devastated by the loss but grateful for all the time we shared with him. We will miss him always.
I hope his children and grandchildren know that people like Richard live forever
The absolute joy of listening to Richard’s music in all it’s shapes and forms, and awareness that his heart and soul were always the source of his multi-faceted brilliance will always remain within us. I cannot imagine another like him and am so very grateful that he has manifested his work in our hearts forever.
My BWV232 twenty year old license plate made me sad this week, but thoughts of Richard (and Bach) help to make me smile again.
One of the first professional choruses I sang with in New York was Musica Sacra, a remarkable learning experience on so many levels. Dick Westenburg taught so much more than notes; rehearsals were fascinating journeys into the world of text painting and nuance, filled with stories of conductors and composers, past and present. As a member of the Conductors’ Chorus at Juilliard during the 1980’s, I watched the maestro as he taught graduate students (Kent Tritle, best and brightest among them) and realized how much Dick loved to share his music with others, ensemble and audience alike. The twenty years I spent singing “Messiah” with Dick Westenburg and Musica Sacra are unforgetable, and I loved every minute and every measure. Thank you, Dick, for sharing them with me.
I was introduced to Dick by a mutual friend who had hired him at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian and myself at First Presbyterian East Hampton. At the time I was finishing my doctorate in choral music. Dick became a fine friend and a real source of encouragement to me in my fledgling career. He was also a lot of fun. He always had time to chat and wrote me several warm and encouraging letters in my first big job. It’s with sadness that I contemplate his passing. Thanks Dick, for being a good friend.
I became involved with Musica Sacra through one of my dearest friends. I became hooked on it because Dick Westenburg not only made beautiful music, but also taught you what you were listening to. After one of his many conversations about music, I heard all music differently. He had a way of telling you about music that made you not only want to listen, but you also remembered what you heard.
His choral music was bell-like. Thankfully we have it to remember him and his great contributions.
Dick was a classmate at Lawrence University in the 1950’s. I have fond memories of Dick, another organ student and I sneaking into Lawrence Memorial Chapel after hours and listening to Dick play Bach on the chapel organ. Even then, his musical gift was evident. A performance of Messiah was a Christmas tradition at Lawrence, and for several years Dick served as sole accompanist for the soloists and choir directed by his mentor, LaVahn Maesch, Dean of the Music Conservatory. My, how things were to change with his wonderful performances of Messiah by Musica Sacra!
After my company transferred me to New York, I was privileged to hear Musica Sacra perform many great choral works by Bach, Mozart, Monteverdi, and Faure’, but Messiah became a family tradition in the 1980’s, and my son and I have attended nearly every performance since then. As a cancer survivor, the scriptures set to Handel’s powerful music has been a source of hope for me in my ongoing battle with this insidious disease, and I shared that with Dick after what was to be his last performance of Messiah in 2006. No one ever did the “Amen Chorus” like his wonderful Musica Sacra chorus, and we all say “Amen” to him as he joins another wonderful chorus that will never die!
Jim Morris, Lawrence 1956
Richard,
I met you in 1979 at a Metropolitan Museum Concert, at which time you met me, facing the fact that I was losing my mother to her battle with breast cancer, with the music that gives the spirit “to go on”. This music helped me when I needed it most (the “Messiah”, Brahm’s “Requiem”, and the “St. Matthew’s Passion”). I asked you, one Spring, to do the Brahms “Requiem” and you did it that Spring. Being musically trained in Cleveland, Ohio, I treasured the classical music that gave this midwestener’s strength to go on. You will never know what you did for so many like me. I did volunteer work with Alison Lackenau who was a treasure, with whom I worked, and who diligently with her husband, supported your glorious chorus. Thank you so much for this wonderful music you gave us, particularly the “Messiah”, and, long forgotten, “Basically Bach” Concerts, which, when terminated, I missed so very much. I am so very blessed that I have your autographed copy of the “Messiah”. You are now in the company of God’s great musicians and chorus! I will miss your “Messiah”. No one, Richard, in my eyes, and soul, will match that! This Christmas (2008), I will replay those tapes of the “Messiah” and not only sob, but rejoice, because I knew you! I hope that there is a Memorial “Messiah” for you at Carnegie Hall this Christmas. I want to be at that concert, and will be there “For You” ! I want that concert to be glorious!
Thank You, so very much Richard!
Margaret Sisko, MS, RN, COHN-S, CCM
As a young aspiring singer determined to make her mark in the Big Apple, I moved into NYC in the fall of 1979 just four blocks from the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. I attended church at the Cathedral one wintry Sunday morning in 1980, heard the choir under Dick Westenburg’s direction and said to myself “Wow, that’s for me”. Aware that Dick also directed Musica Sacra, I returned the next Sunday, resume in hand, and paid Dick a “surprise” visit in his office after the service. I expressed interest in singing with Musica Sacra and asked if I could leave my resume with him - which he graciously accepted. Not long after, I found myself in rehearsal for my first Musica Sacra concert. I was thrilled! I am grateful to have sung so many challenging and wonderful works under Dick’s direction.
Thank you for giving an ambitious yet uncertain young lady a chance to discover and be part of a whole new choral world. I am saddened to learn of your passing - a great loss for the choral community.
Dick and I were both new to The Collegiate Chorale in the fall of 1973. I sang in the alto section for the six years that he conducted the group, and it was an elegant journey through baroque music, of course, which he conducted from the harpsichord, but also other major choral repertoire. A highlight was our 1976 performance of Bach’s St. John Passion. Because some people have a problem with the text of John’s gospel, Dick researched the issue, changed the word “Juden” to “volken” wherever it appeared in the score, and wrote an erudite and compassionate note in the Carnegie Hall program to justify his decision. I think that says a lot about both the man and the musician.
I put a short piece on my blog (www.richardsparks1.blogspot.com) about Dick. Here it is:
If you read the obit below [link in the right column above on this page], from the NY Times, you’ll get a sense of the kind of background and thorough training Dick had, along with the fantastic music-making of his career–he was a terrific musician–but perhaps not enough about his pure love of music and great sense of humor.
I didn’t know Dick well–we served on the Chorus America board for several years and always chatted at conferences, but got to know each other a bit better when we both taught (me in the Fall Quarter and him in the Winter Quarter) at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati as guest professors last year. During his time at CCM and after, we kept up an email correspondence about teaching, our shared students, and music.
He had a love and passion for music that was extraordinary, and it never seemed to lose its freshness for him. He was always delighted to talk about music and was fascinated by what I was doing in Sweden (he noted that he had Swedish heritage, but had never visited).
I especially remember standing with him next to John Leman (another wonderful musician we lost last fall) at a hotel in Minneapolis at the IFCM conference in 2002. This was after a young Russian choir had given a great performance (including the Schnittke Choir Concerto) and they met up with Gary Graden’s choir from Stockholm. They sang for each other informally in the lobby, then joined together on several pieces they had in common, including Bogoroditse Devo from the All-Night Vigil. What fun to be with those two guys listening to this great, informal performance, both simply delighted to be listening to it!
There’s also a wonderful interview with Dick in a recent Choral Journal [see link in right hand column above]. Don’t miss it–it does give a sense of who he was and what he was about as a musician–and lots of great ideas.
He’ll be missed.
Richard was and is first and foremost the most magical and impressive musical leader I have encountered in my musical life. Graduating from Juillard Masters Degree, serving as Principal Bassoonist in the Louisville Orchestra, all the various orchestras in the Tri State area, and a founding member of the venerable Orfeous Chameber Orchestra; I must say that my 25 years with Richard and his wonderful orchestra contractor, Barbara Wilson, who upholds the highest musical standards, have been the best of my musical career. Richard will always be with US; Peter Simmons, bassoonist for Richard.
Those of us who sang for Dick are walking wounded in disbelief. He was a dear friend, an unbelievable musician and a “Hoot” with a hysterical sense of humor! I have been blessed to have sung with Dick and Musica Sacra for over 24 years. As a professional musician in NYC, my colleagues & I have sung countless sacred choral pieces and yet no matter how many “Messiahs” we’ve sung during the holidays, Dick’s interpretation was by far the most profound & natural. Whether it be one of Bach’s Passions, a newly commissioned work, the Christmas Messiahs or the Meredith Monk recording sessions, he had a way of keeping us on the edge of our chairs during rehearsals with his gentle spirit, fun sense of humor, wonderful stories and incredible insights. He would spend an inordinate amount of rehearsal time on having us caress words such as “Lamb” to show innocence & spit out the word “Sin” to make the listener feel it in their souls. I was amazed during the Messiah performances that he could get so moved, to be brought to tears by the final “Amen” (this after the many countless performances over the years)! He was my (our) surrogate musical father who took us on sojourns that I’ll never forget. And yet, he was so appreciative of us as well! I will never forget a letter Dick wrote us after a performance, thanking us for the opportunity to take him on a “wondrous journey” with our singing. He was a selfless musician that we dearly loved and will be grievously missed. My sadness is beyond words.
I only sang with Richard once, nearly 10 years ago, learning and performing 2 Brubeck pieces, with Dave and his trio, but it has made a lasting impression on me. Richard was both a wonderful musician and humanitarian, and a great teacher as well. I am sorry I will not have an opportunity to work with him again. My thoughts go out to his children, who he often talked about. I hope they know how much their father will be missed by the choral community.
A few weeks ago I had the difficult task of letting my students at the College Conservatory of Music know of Richard’s passing. I first met him at CCM in 1999, when I was a new doctoral student and he was a guest faculty member. We had kept in touch on and off, and he was again a guest faculty at CCM when I interviewed for the choral faculty vacancy.
He was a strong influence on many younger conductors, a guide, mentor, and good friend.
We will miss you, Dick.
I first met Dick in the 1960s when he came to perform an organ recital at Palm Springs Community Church in California. I had recently been discharged after a three-year stint in the U.S. Army, had returned to college, and was studying organ performance and conducting with Harry Tomlinson and John Norman.
There was a huge gathering of some sort that particular week in Palm Springs and hotel reservations were simply unobtainable. Dick opted to stay with me in my “bachelor pad” and I spent most of the time convulsed with laughter. It was a delightful weekend. The remarkable thing was that the previous week, Dick had left his office above the sanctuary at Central Presbyterian when his phone rang. Knowing that there was a phone in the elevator with all lines available, he headed for the lift, threw open the door, stepped in to find that the car was several stories below him. After a rapid descent he plunged through the top of the car injuring both ankles rather badly. I turned pages for him during the recital and knew that he was in agony. The crowning glory of that concert was his transcription of Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” from “Solomon” where he played the sprightly trumpet “duet” on a four-foot reed in the pedal division. The performance was flawless but it must have killed him.
The year that I went to NYC to study, Dick met me and I had supper with Dick, Ellin, and the children. He opened many doors for me and made the Moller at Central Presbyterian available as I needed it. He also arranged for me to have privileges on the Holtkamp at Corpus Christi parish. We got together often during that wonderful time.
The most memorable thing for me involved a piece of choral music. Knowing Dick’s knowledge of the repertoire, I assumed that he knew the Faure “Cantique de Jean Racine”. Amazingly, he did not and he was spellbound by the copy that I gave him. In my last email contact with him some 40 years after the event, he again thanked me for introducing him to what was now one of his favorite pieces.
Dick, there is a huge empty spot here right next to that of my late wife. You will be missed, old friend.
I did not know Maestro Westenburg personally, having only been introduced musically when a local FM station in Seattle played the “Christmas Carols” album when it was fresh in the early 90s. An instant fan (the most perfect “Silent Night” ever), the album became a favorite gift to musical friends, even now among my colleagues in the Colorado Symphony Chorus.
After many years of good intentions, I finally brought my family to New York from Denver for the Messiah and a couple months later for the Faure and Mozart Requiems. These occasions are now more treasured than ever. After the Messiah performance, we were personally introduced to the maestro by a friend of his near whom we had been seated. What a delight!
We look forward to hearing Musica Sacra in the future, the best and most lasting and fitting monument to Maestro Westenburg - and his gift to all!
I met Richard Westenburg first while a student at Juilliard in the early 80s. He showed great kindness and encouragement to me then, and helped me feel less like a ‘fish out of water’ - being a singer who had a greater affinity for oratorio than operatic music, completely surrounded by operatic singers. I quickly grew to respect not only the depth of his knowledge, but also his great sense of fun and joy in music-making. We shared many great laughs as we rehearsed together over the years… and I remember very fondly the effervescence that he brought to our performance of “The Seasons” - Haydn at Avery Fisher Hall. It will always stand as one of the most inspired musical moments of my career.
We have been out of touch for some time, after my moving back to Canada, and I am very sorry that I missed the news of his passing until now. It hit me terribly hard today. I send my condolences to all of his family… as well as to Kent and all of the Musica Sacra family.
fond regards,
Kevin McMillan
Oh mannnnnn- this is NOT true! Dick was timeless - he was Handel and Bach incarnate. He CAN’T be gone. To me, he WAS Musica Sacra.
I sang with Dick in the early years for quite a while (I’m even on that first digital Messiah recording) and having gotten my Masters Degree in vocal performance from the Univ. of Michigan (Go Blue), it wasn’t until my first Messiah performance with M.S. at Central Pres. that I learned what real musical performance/communication with an audience was like. You could actually see or feel Dick’s soul and passion coming from his hands to and through the chorus and out to the audience only to come back to us from the audience. It was an unbroken wheel of artistic energy the likes of which I have never experienced before or since. The intimate setting at Central Pres. was part of the sensation as well - so I thought. But when we stood on the stage at Fisher Hall in later seasons, I still felt this energy. Dick was a master musician/performer for ALL time.
Even though I had lost touch with him personally over the last few years, his passing pains me as only the death of a parent or mentor could. I simply find it hard to believe.
My prayers go out to Dick’s family and the many, many people he has touched with his humor, talent, musical passion, and LOVE.
His greatness will be missed.
With loving memories,
Bill Hall
I met Mr. Westenburg while at Juilliard. He not only gave me my first professional engagement, but he also guided me how to be a true musician. It’s a shock to me to learn about his death. I miss you, Mr. Westenburg. You remain in my heart as my best mentor.