Amanda Husberg
Encyclopedia
Amanda Husberg is an American
composer
of hymn
s.
where she majored in Organ, studying with Jan Bender. She taught elementary school for two years at Redeemer Lutheran School in Westfield, New Jersey
before going to Brooklyn
to do parish work. She received her M.S. in Early Childhood Education from Hunter College
in New York City
.
For over 40 years she has been the Director of Music at St. John the Evangelist Lutheran Church, now a multicultural congregation in the Williamsburg
section of Brooklyn.
s published in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the U.K, and China. Her hymns are in hymnals and supplements published by a variety of publishers and denominations, including the popular Methodist supplement, The Faith We Sing, which also includes her most popular tune, Jennings-Houston, now published in six different hymnals and supplements, including Lutheran Worship. She has written two liturgical masses, one of which, The Brooklyn Mass, is currently being used at her church. She also has several choral pieces published.
Her own book of 47 tunes to new texts (including 8 of her own) When You Pass Through the Waters, was published by Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc., in 2005.
When Husberg first came to St. John’s Church, it was entirely African-American. Through the years she has played spirituals, jazz, gospel, and a variety of other styles of music, from Johann Sebastian Bach
to Andraé Crouch
. All this is reflected in the variety of styles she writes in for her hymns, with a special love of early American pentatonic music and gospel music.
She is a member of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada
and credits them with nurturing her hymn writing efforts. She writes for congregational singing, believing that we do sing with one voice, young and old, people of all walks of life, new singers and experienced singers. Together we sing praise to the One who accepts all our praise, no matter how beautiful it is, or how humble it may be. She is also a member of the American Composers Forum and ASCAP, from which she has received yearly Awards since 2001.
, a renowned artist of Lutheran upbringing whose illustrations for John Milton
's Paradise Lost
are the most famous of the 20th century for the subject. The text of the requiem mass is new, and written by Lutheran sacred poet and hymn
writer, Richard Leach
. The Requiem was premiered in Elizabethtown, KY the weekend of March 5 and 6, 2011. According to the composer Amanda, it definitely stands as "the answer to Paradise Lost."
What people have said about the requiem:
"One can compare it to a road which leads the believing soul to the final Resurrection banquet, to join all of Christ's disciples in thankfulness, joy and triumph." D. Sida Hodoroaba-Roberts, The Elizabethtown Area Sacred Community Choir (Kentucky)
"It is with great joy that I hear this wonderful requiem! It will continue to give me faith, comfort and inspiration!"https://sites.google.com/site/terrancelindallsparadiselost/about-terrance-lindall/the-husberg-leach-requiem-for-terrance-lindall Terrance Lindall
Terrance Lindall painted her into his Paradise Lost Altarpiece to honor her and Richard Leach for their efforts on the requiem. A signed and dedicated copy of the requiem is in the collection of the Yuko Nii
Foundation and the renowned Robert J. Wickenheiser Milton collectionhttp://miltonsociety.org/?page_id=794 along with full sized Giclee prints of the altarpiece signed by Lindall.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s.
Education
She received her B.S. in Education in 1962, from Concordia Teachers College, in Seward, NebraskaSeward, Nebraska
Seward is a city in Seward County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Lincoln, Nebraska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 6,133 at the 2000 census...
where she majored in Organ, studying with Jan Bender. She taught elementary school for two years at Redeemer Lutheran School in Westfield, New Jersey
Westfield, New Jersey
Westfield is a town in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town population was 30,316. The old village area, now the downtown district, was settled in 1720 as part of the Elizabethtown Tract....
before going to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
to do parish work. She received her M.S. in Early Childhood Education from Hunter College
Hunter College
Hunter College, established in 1870, is a public university and one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York, located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Hunter grants undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate degrees in more than one hundred fields of study, and is recognized...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Career
Before her retirement, Husberg worked for thirty-six years as a Director in one of the 450 New York City publicly funded day care centers.For over 40 years she has been the Director of Music at St. John the Evangelist Lutheran Church, now a multicultural congregation in the Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
section of Brooklyn.
Composing
Husberg has 120 hymn tuneHymn tune
A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm , and no refrain or chorus....
s published in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the U.K, and China. Her hymns are in hymnals and supplements published by a variety of publishers and denominations, including the popular Methodist supplement, The Faith We Sing, which also includes her most popular tune, Jennings-Houston, now published in six different hymnals and supplements, including Lutheran Worship. She has written two liturgical masses, one of which, The Brooklyn Mass, is currently being used at her church. She also has several choral pieces published.
Her own book of 47 tunes to new texts (including 8 of her own) When You Pass Through the Waters, was published by Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc., in 2005.
When Husberg first came to St. John’s Church, it was entirely African-American. Through the years she has played spirituals, jazz, gospel, and a variety of other styles of music, from Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
to Andraé Crouch
Andrae Crouch
Andraé Crouch is a seven-time Grammy Award-winning American gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, recording artist, record producer, and pastor.-Early years:Born Andraé Edward Crouch in San Francisco, California....
. All this is reflected in the variety of styles she writes in for her hymns, with a special love of early American pentatonic music and gospel music.
She is a member of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada
Hymn Society in the United States and Canada
The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, founded in 1922 as The Hymn Society of America and renamed in 1991, is a not-for-profit organization for those people who:* believe that congregational song is an integral component of worship...
and credits them with nurturing her hymn writing efforts. She writes for congregational singing, believing that we do sing with one voice, young and old, people of all walks of life, new singers and experienced singers. Together we sing praise to the One who accepts all our praise, no matter how beautiful it is, or how humble it may be. She is also a member of the American Composers Forum and ASCAP, from which she has received yearly Awards since 2001.
The Requiem Mass for Terrance Lindall
Husberg has completed a resurrection requiem mass "A Feast Prepared", written at the request of Terrance LindallTerrance Lindall
Terrance Lindall is an American artist who was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1944. Lindall attended the University of Minnesota and graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College in New York City in 1970, with a double major in Philosophy and English and a double minor in Psychology and Physical...
, a renowned artist of Lutheran upbringing whose illustrations for John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
are the most famous of the 20th century for the subject. The text of the requiem mass is new, and written by Lutheran sacred poet and hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
writer, Richard Leach
Richard Leach
Richard Leach is an American hymn writer and poet.He received a B.A from Bowdoin College in 1974, and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1978. He was a United Church of Christ pastor in Connecticut from 1978 to 1999. He began writing hymns in 1987...
. The Requiem was premiered in Elizabethtown, KY the weekend of March 5 and 6, 2011. According to the composer Amanda, it definitely stands as "the answer to Paradise Lost."
What people have said about the requiem:
"One can compare it to a road which leads the believing soul to the final Resurrection banquet, to join all of Christ's disciples in thankfulness, joy and triumph." D. Sida Hodoroaba-Roberts, The Elizabethtown Area Sacred Community Choir (Kentucky)
"It is with great joy that I hear this wonderful requiem! It will continue to give me faith, comfort and inspiration!"https://sites.google.com/site/terrancelindallsparadiselost/about-terrance-lindall/the-husberg-leach-requiem-for-terrance-lindall Terrance Lindall
Terrance Lindall painted her into his Paradise Lost Altarpiece to honor her and Richard Leach for their efforts on the requiem. A signed and dedicated copy of the requiem is in the collection of the Yuko Nii
Yuko Nii
Yuko Nii is an artist and philanthropist. She studied English and American Literature at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan. In 1963 she transferred to Macalaster College, St. Paul, Minnesota as a scholarship student, and earned her BFA. in 1965...
Foundation and the renowned Robert J. Wickenheiser Milton collectionhttp://miltonsociety.org/?page_id=794 along with full sized Giclee prints of the altarpiece signed by Lindall.
Published work
- Come and Hear the Blessing, Hymns on the Beatitudes (with Richard Leach), Abingdon Press, 2006 ISBN 978-0-687-49131-5
- When You Pass Through the Waters, Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc., 2005 ISBN 1-881162-14-1