Benjamin Horch

Horch, Benjamin
Benjamin Horch. Baritone, conductor, teacher, administrator, broadcaster, b near Odessa, Russia, of German parents, 19 Nov 1907, d 2 Jul 1992; honorary LL D (Winnipeg) 1974. The Horch family moved to Canada in 1909, and in his youth Benjamin Horch sang in the Winnipeg Male Voice Choir and in the Manitoba Music Competition Festival. After some years of private music study he served 1932-8 as choir director and theory teacher at the Winnipeg Bible Institute (now Providence College, Otterburne). He studied 1939-43 in Los Angeles and returned to serve 1943-55 as music director of the Mennonite Brethren Bible College and founder-conductor of the Mennonite Symphony Orchestra in Winnipeg. During the summers 1943-50 he conducted Mennonite community choirs across Canada. Horch was one of the music editors of the Gesangbuch (1952) of the Mennonite Brethren Churches and a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. He joined the CBC in Winnipeg in 1959 as a producer of serious music for radio and after his retirement in 1973 worked as a freelance broadcaster and to promote Mennonite music in Canada. Horch proposed the commissioning of Victor Davies' Mennonite Piano Concerto in 1974. In 1987 he was the first recipient of the Prix Manitoba Award for his contribution in the areas of media and communications.

See also Mennonites.

Author David Falk

Bibliography

Siemens, Lloyd. 'Ben Horch: Dean of Mennonite conductors,' Manitoba Choral Assoc, special issue, 1986

"The Ben Horch legacy," Manitoba Sings!, Autumn 1992

Klassen, Doreen H. "Benjamin Horch as an insider-outsider musical-theological visionary," Sound in the Land: Essays on Mennonites and Music, eds Maureen Epp and Carol Ann Weaver (Kitchener 2005)

Davies, Victor. "A non-Mennonite writes a Mennonite piano concerto," ibid.

Letkemann, Peter. The Ben Horch Story (Winnipeg 2007)

Links to Other Sites
Benjamin Horch and Esther Hiebert Horch
This site offers a description of the archived personal papers of musician Benjamin Horch and Esther Hiebert Horch held at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies. Also provides a brief biographical sketch.

The Mennonite Piano Concerto
A brief article about the Mennonite Piano Concerto, initially conceived by Benjamin Horch and composed by musician Victor Davies. From the website for the Mennonite Historical Society of British Columbia.

The Ben Horch Story
A website devoted to a biography of Ben Horch, noted Mennonite musician. Features a brief synopsis, audio clips, and excerpts from “The Ben Horch Story Video Tribute." From Old Oak Publishing & Recording.

Benjamin Horch
A brief biography and bibliography for Benjamin Horch. From the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.