Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Spring 2023 11 SAIs In Action Belgium to attend the concert. The director of the group was Luc Ponet, organist at the Basilica in Tongeren. As a result, I later invited Ponet to be a guest organ instructor at the summer school session at Concordia in 1996. In 1989 I became chairman of the music department, and also a full professor at Concordia, and remained so until my retirement in 1997. Upon retirement, I moved first to Spokane, WA and then three years later to Everett, WA to live with my sister who was finishing her career as a personal secretary to former Governor Spellman. In 2005 my edition of Kuhnau's Kurze Messe was performed in New York City. In 2014 I received a letter from David Erler in Leipzig. Erler is a countertenor with his ensemble Opella Musica and a music editor. He had read my dissertation and was inspired to begin a Kuhnau project of publishing all of Kuhnau's vocal works and recording them. His project was completed this past summer, and all the works have been published by Breitkopf and Haertel, with recordings on eight CDs. A Kuhnau festival program contains a paragraph about me and my early work on the cantatas. Since retirement I have received several awards. For editing the newsletter of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians for 13 years, I received the "Faithful Servant Award." I have also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who's Who and my bio appears in Volume VI of A Lifetime of Achievement. Sigma Alpha Iota has given me several awards: the Sword of Honor, the Rose of Dedication, and the Rose of Constancy. Since graduating from college, I have been a member of SAI alumnae groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, Oak Park, Illinois, Seattle, and Tacoma, WA. In 2009, with my sister's participation, a Rimbach Scholarship for students from Myanmar was established for Burmese students to study at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hong Kong where our brother, Dr. James Rimbach, was a professor. Also established was an annual Rimbach Theology Conference each fall at the Concordia Seminary in Hong Kong. At left, the March 1970 At left, the March 1970 PAN PIPES PAN PIPES featured the announcement of Rimbach's featured the announcement of Rimbach's American Council of Learned Societies American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship for further research in Fellowship for further research in Germany on the vocal works of Johann Germany on the vocal works of Johann Kuhnau. Kuhnau. Above, from left: San Francisco Alumnae Above, from left: San Francisco Alumnae Chapter Vice-President Winifred Chapter Vice-President Winifred Bengson, Composer and National Bengson, Composer and National Arts Associate Kirke L. Mechem, Arts Associate Kirke L. Mechem, and President and Vice-President and President and Vice-President respectively of the Berkeley-Oakland respectively of the Berkeley-Oakland Alumnae, Evangeline Rimbach and Ruth Alumnae, Evangeline Rimbach and Ruth Wahl, from the March 1961 Wahl, from the March 1961 PAN PIPES. PAN PIPES.

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