Richard Westenburg

Richard Westenburg was one of the leading church music directors in the New York City area, where he founded the Musica Sacra ensemble and Lincoln Center's Basically Bach Festival. He was also a noted educator. Westenburg was born on April 26, 1932, in Minneapolis. He graduated from Lawrence University in Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota in choral conducting and organ. He continued his studies in both areas in France with Pierre Cochereau and Jean Langlais and had more general musical studies there with Nadia Boulanger. Westenburg completed his postgraduate studies at the Union Theological Seminary. In New York City, he had positions with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. In 1968, he founded the professional chorus Musica Sacra. Westenburg initiated the Basically Bach Festival at Lincoln Center in 1979 and served as its music director through 1989. He was the head of the Choral Departments of the Juilliard School (1977-1989) and Rutgers University (1986-1992), and he frequently gave seminars on sacred music performance at leading educational institutions. As a guest conductor, he appeared with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, among others. Westenburg died in Norwalk, Connecticut, on February 20, 2008. ~ Joseph Stevenson & Keith Finke, Rovi