New music professor earns prestigious choral director award

December 11, 2008

A new member of the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater is certainly starting off with a bang. Professor Robert Gehrenbeck is winner of the prestigious American Choral Directors Association Julius Herford Prize, which rewards the outstanding doctoral terminal research project in choral music.

He won the prize for his final document on the choral music of British composer Giles Swayne, “Creating Complexity by Layering Simplicities: An Analysis of Giles Swayne's Cry, Magnificat I, Missa Tiburtina and Stabat Mater.”

“This award also reminds me how much I have benefited from the expertise of all my teachers throughout graduate school and even in my undergraduate years,” Gehrenbeck, who teaches choir and voice classes at UW-Whitewater, said. “Projects of this scale are always collaborative efforts because of the way all scholars do research: building upon what others have done before and learning from the critiques and advice of trusted teachers, colleagues and spouses.”

“Julius Herford was one of the great icons in American choral music and the Julius Herford Prize brings significant national recognition to Robert Gehrenbeck and to our strong music program,” John Heyer, former dean of the College of Arts and Communication and a former choral conductor, said. “A forward-looking university choral program should be built around the integration of performance and scholarship, and this award confirms that professor Gehrenbeck brings the requisite talent and expertise to our program to achieve that integration.”

Along with recognition in the field, comes $1,000 and a plaque. “The university offers its heartiest congratulations to Professor Gehrenbeck. We are fortunate to count him among our outstanding new faculty,” Interim Provost Christine Clements said. “His work at UW-Whitewater is wonderful and very much appreciated.”