Sigma Alpha Iota

10 Spring 2023 • sai-national.org By Dr. Evangeline L . Rimbach U pon celebrating my 90 th birthday in June 2022, I reflected on all of my experiences and discoveries over the past decades. I attended elementary and high school in Port Angeles, WA, graduating in 1950 from Roosevelt High School as valedictorian of my class. While in high school, I was pianist for the girls' vocal ensemble (Nonett) which gave over 60 performances during the year. Upon graduation I received numerous scholarships from various organizations in the city. From 1950-52 I attended Pacific Lutheran College where I studied piano with Karl Weiss, an Eastman alum, and sang in the chorus and the Choir of the West. In 1952 I transferred to Valparaiso University in Indiana, where I studied piano with William Kroger and sang in the Valpo Choir. It was in Valparaiso that I joined Sigma Alpha Iota with the Beta Lambda chapter. In 1954 I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Public School Music. From 1954-56 I attended the Eastman School of Music where I had been awarded a graduate assistantship. I studied piano with José Echániz and sang with the Eastman chorus. Upon completing my studies, I was awarded a M.M. in Musicology. It is interesting to note that Richard Nixon was the speaker at the graduation ceremonies. In 1956 I was hired as the vocal music instructor at Goodwin Junior High School (now renamed Kennedy Middle School) in Redwood City, CA. From 1957-62 I was a music instructor at California Concordia College in Oakland, CA. While teaching there I studied piano with Alexander Libermann, who taught in Berkley and Mills College. Mr. Libermann had studied with Egon Petri and Busoni and was originally from Kiev. At the college I taught piano, a fine arts class, and directed a girls' choir. In 1962 I was awarded another graduate assistantship at the Eastman School of Music where I remained until 1964. While at Eastman I began work on my Ph.D. dissertation in musicology on the topic of "Church Cantatas of Johann Kuhnau." I obtained microfilm of manuscripts from libraries in Marburg, Brussels, Dresden, and Hamburg, plus church archives. In all, I transcribed 26 cantatas. In 1964 I was hired as assistant professor of music at Concordia University Chicago. At Concordia, I taught piano, music literature, and music history classes. For many yearsI was the chairman of the Cultural Affairs Committee. I completed my dissertation in 1966 and was awarded the Ph.D in Musicology in 1967. While at Concordia, I sang with the Chicago Symphony Chorus for one year and with the Grace Lutheran Church Choir for 33 years. In 1969-70 I was given a sabbatical year, which I spent in Berlin. I traveled to Germany via freighter trip from San Francisco around the world to Rotterdam. For my sabbatical I had been awarded a post- doctoral fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). While in Berlin, I transcribed Kuhnau's Magnificat in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. My edition of the Magnificat was published in 1980 by AR Editions in their Recent Researches in Baroque Music Series. Remember that these were the days of a divided Berlin, and I would cross the border at Checkpoint Charlie each time I went to the library. While in Berlin I sang with the Berliner Capella under the direction of Dr. Peter Schwarz. In 1980-81 I was given another sabbatical year, which I spent in Munich and Berlin. I had been awarded a DAAD grant (Deutscher Academischer Austauschdienst – German Academic Exchange Service). In the spring of 1981 while visiting a friend in Werther, I became ill with a xyto-virus infection and spent two weeks in the clinic – Bethel bei Bielefeldt. After several weeks I gradually became better and was able to return to the States. In 1991 I visited Barenreiter Verlag in Kassel, Germany, who then published my edition of Kuhnau's cantata Lobe de Herren. In 1992 I received a letter from the Balije Consort and Choir in Belgium, asking permission to perform several of my editions of Kuhnau cantatas. They had seen my edition of the Kuhnau Magnificat in the library in Leuven. They performed a number of the cantatas on a program in December of that year in the chapel at Alden Biesen (the estate of the Knights of Teutonic Order) in Belgium. I traveled to SAIs In Action 90 Years of Musical Discoveries Beta Lambda initiate and current Beta Lambda initiate and current Tacoma Alumnae Chapter affiliate Tacoma Alumnae Chapter affiliate Dr. Evengeline L. Rimbach. Dr. Evengeline L. Rimbach.

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