Ralph
C. Schultz was born in
Dolton, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, on June 23, 1932.
His music study began when he was five years old. Soon
thereafter, his interest in musical composition surfaced.
After working with Herman Spier and Rosetter Cole, Schultz
earned a Bachelor of Music degree at the Cosmopolitan
School of Music in Chicago in 1954. Also in 1954, Schultz
completed the course of study leading to the Bachelor
of Science in Education at Concordia University, River
Forest, Illinois where he studied with Carl Waldschmidt,
Paul Bunjes, Carl Halter, and Victor Hildner.
Upon
graduation Schultz married Dorothy Ruth Nickel and the couple
began teaching careers in Cleveland, Ohio, Dorothy at St.
Mark's Lutheran School and Ralph at Luther Memorial School,
a consolidated school for Trinity Lutheran Church where he
served as organist and choir director. In the summer of 1955
Schultz enrolled at the University of Michigan to study organ
with Robert Noehren and composition with Ross Lee Finney.
Influenced by Noehren, Trinity Lutheran Church installed
in 1957 the first large mechanical action organ in America
built by Rudolf von Beckerath in Hamburg, Germany. The instrument
gained an international reputation for its quality and it
generated new interest in America for the mechanical action
organ.
Schultz
transferred from the University of Michigan to the Cleveland
Institute of Music where he studied composition with Marcel
Dick, a close associate of Arnold Schoenberg. Music activities
at Trinity were broadened to include conducting the Cleveland
Lutheran Chorus and Orchestra in a number of concerts and
television appearances each year. The Cleveland Institute
granted the Master of Music in theory and composition to
Schultz in 1960.
In
1961, Schultz accepted the call to chair the music department
at Concordia College, Bronxville, New York. Schultz began
the pursuit of a doctorate in music education at Teachers
College of Columbia University. However, the desire to compose
and conduct church music led him to transfer to Union Theological
Seminary where he earned the Sacred Music Doctorate in 1967.
While a student at Union, Schultz studied organ with Vernon
De Tar, composition with Seth Bingham, musicology with Richard
French, and conducting with Thomas Dunn. Schultz returned
to Union as lecturer in conducting from 1968-1972. Under
his direction the Concordia Choir received critical acclaim
for performances at Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Alice Tully
Hall at Lincoln Center as well as various cities in Germany.
Throughout
his career as a composer, Schultz has closely identified
with music for the church, but he has also written sonatas
for piano and oboe, pieces for strings, and a suite for orchestra
titled The Intelligent Man. In addition to numerous
organ pieces, Schultz has composed extensively for choirs.
Major compositions for choir and orchestra include Chorale
Mass, To Him Be Glory, and Praise God with Hearts
and Voices. Schultz and his wife Dorothy collaborated
on many compositions including Sing for Joy!, and
special music for the weddings of their six children and
baptisms of their fourteen grandchildren. The hymn Love
in Christ, now included in Lutheran Worship,
was first written for the wedding of daughter Deborah to
Kevin Cook.
Schultz
retired from the presidency at Concordia College in June
of 1998. Upon his retirement, the Board of Regents named
him President Emeritus and Professor of Music
Emeritus. Year- long festivities surrounding his retirement
culminated in a reunion of more than 220 alumni who had sung
for him between 1961 and 1998. After four intensive days
of rehearsal and fellowship, they produced a magnificent
recording and performed to a sell-out crowd at Alice Tully
Hall in Lincoln Center, New York City. Dorothy and he have
moved to a new home in Slingerlands, NY where he continues
to be involved as an author, composer, choral clinician and
guest conductor for such events as the recent performance
of Bach's Mass in B Minor for the "Basically
Bach Festival" at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Manhattan.
Dr.
Schultz has founded the Jubilate Singers and Orchestra in
the Capital Region of Albany, New York. Ninety singers drawn
from area congregations have performed Handel's Messiah, Brahms' Requiem, Bach's Passion
According to St. John and Christ lag in Todesbanden, and
Schultz's ChoraleMass.
A
biographical listing for Schultz has been included in Contemporary
American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary by E.
Ruth Anderson published by G. K. Hall & Co., Boston,
Mass. He has also been included in Your Own Way in Music;
A Career and Resource Guide by Nancy Uscher published
by St. Martin's Press.
Choral
music by Ralph C. Schultz
