Weston Noble

Weston Noble (born 1922) is a highly accomplished and honored American music educator and conductor. As the Johnson Professor Emeritus of Music at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, he is best known for his fifty-seven year tenure as conductor of The Nordic Choir from 1948 to 2005, direction of the Luther College Concert Band from 1948 to 1973, and as guest director for over 800 music festivals spanning four continents.

Biography

Early life and education

Weston Henry Noble was born in 1922 and raised on a farm just west of Riceville, Iowa to parents of English ancestry. He was confirmed in the Free Methodist Church and received his early education in a country one-room schoolhouse until the eighth grade, afterward attending the local Riceville High School. Like many young Iowans with an interest in music at that time, Noble played in the high school band, sang in the choir, and played clarinet solos at state music contest. He first demonstrated his talents when taking piano lessons at the urging of his paternal aunt, Ruby (Noble) Dunton, and came to master the clarinet and organ as well.

Though he originally intended to enroll at The University of Iowa, Noble, through the influence of his father, Merwin Henry Noble, enrolled at nearby Luther College in 1939 at the age of 16. Majoring in history with studies in music, he quickly drew the attention of the music faculty because of his talents in conducting, sparked, according to Noble, by the last minute request of Schola Cantorum director Theodore Hoelty-Nickel to lead a rehearsal in his absence. In his second year he began leading rehearsals. He did his student teaching at nearby Decorah High School.

Military career

Due largely to the intense patriotism of World War II and anticipating an eventual call-up, Noble volunteered for military service and was called to active duty in February 1943, in the spring of his senior year. Nevertheless, arrangements were made for him and others to accelerate their studies and complete their final semester prior to commencement. He graduated magna cum laude. Trained as a tank driver, he saw action in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 and was part of the main Allied thrust into the heart of Nazi Germany in 1945. Noble "liberated" some items from Berlin during the initial stages of the Allied occupation, including a marble bust of Beethoven previously owned by Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, which he mailed home among several items.

Teaching

Discharged from military service, Noble returned to Iowa in 1946 and spent two years teaching high school in Lu Verne, where he directed the school's music program and taught courses in the social sciences. While in graduate school at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, Luther College, asked him to serve as interim director of the band and choir on a one-year faculty appointment. His appointment was extended to two years, and then became more permanent beginning in 1950. Noble directed the Luther College Concert Band from 1948-1973, and The Nordic Choir from 1948-2005. Following his retirement, he served a one-year appointment as visiting conductor-in-residence at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. During the 2008-09 academic year, Dr. Noble will teach and conduct the Wartburg Choir and Ritterchor at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, filling in for Dr. Paul Torkelson, a protégé and close friend of Mr. Noble, who will take a one-year academic leave of absence to conduct for MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Musical activities

Noble is an internationally acclaimed conductor as well as a music educator. His distinguished career includes conducting more than 900 music festivals throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe, Russia, and South America. The venues include Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles Music Center, Chicago Orchestra Hall, the Ordway Theater in St. Paul, Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, and the Bolshoi, Kremlin and Tchaikovsky Halls in Moscow. He is the only director to have led all-state choruses, bands and orchestras in all fifty states.

In the spring of 2006, he conducted the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in a national radio broadcast. He also received the Distinguished Service Award from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, making him the only non-Mormon to ever receive this award. In June 2006, he was once again the guest conductor at Guam's 3rd Annual Pacific Summer Music Festival. Most recently he guest conducted the JMU ACDA Choral Fest.

Legacy

Noble built the 72-voice Nordic Choir into one of the most elite a cappella college choirs in the United States. His Nordic Choir has performed throughout the United States and, indeed, much of the world. He has served as guest conductor at more than 950 music festivals around the world.

Awards

*Robert Lawson Shaw Citation, awarded by the American Choral Directors Association
*Distinguished Service Award, 2006 - received from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the only non-Mormon to be so honored
*St. Olav's Medal, 1999 - received from King Harald V of Norway for his contributions to Norwegian-American relations
*Weston H. Noble Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Choral Art, 1994 - first recipient of this award, presented to him by the American Choral Directors Association
*Outstanding Music Educator of the United States, 1989 - presented to him by the National Federation of State High School Associations
*Honorary doctorate degrees
**Augustana College (South Dakota), 1971
**St. Olaf College, 1996
**Westminster Choir College of Rider University, 2005
**Carthage College, 2008

External links

* [http://music.luther.edu/faculty/noble_weston.html Music at Luther - Faculty - Weston Noble]
* [http://academic.luther.edu/~jorgmary/ohp/westonnoble/index.htm The Service of Weston Noble]
* [http://www.offenburger.com/guestpaper.asp?link=20050420 A Tribute to Weston Noble] at [http://www.offenburger.com/ Offenburger.com]