L. Dean Nuernberger Papers

L. (Louis) Dean Nuernberger was born on January 5, 1924 in Wakefield, Nebraska.  He served in the U.S. Army in France during World War II.  He received a B.M., a M.M., and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1950, 1951, and 1963, respectively.  He studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria under a Fulbright scholarship, and with Nadia Boulanger in Fontainbleau, France.

Before joining the Oberlin Conservatory of Music’s music theory department faculty in 1964, Nuernberger taught as Assistant Professor of Theory at Berea College and as Visiting Professor of Music History at the University of Missouri.  At Oberlin he held the Assistant Professor of Music Theory rank until his promotion to Associate Professor in 1969, and Professor of Music Theory in 1976.

Nuernberger founded the early music ensemble Collegium Musicum in 1966, serving as the ensemble’s director for 21 years until his retirement in 1989.  The ensemble was comprised of approximately 24 singers and 14 instrumentalists dedicated to performing medieval, renaissance and early baroque music, much of which was unavailable in modern editions.  A good number of the works received their first modern performance in Fairchild Chapel at Oberlin.  The ensemble also gave performances in Chicago, Ann Arbor, Toledo, Pittsburgh, and other locations.  Members of the group also participated in various lecture-demonstrations and recitals.  After Nuernberger’s retirement the ensemble continued under the directorship of Steven Plank, director of musicology.

Dean Nuernberger wrote a number of original musical compositions during his professional career.  He was named the first-place composer in the 1985 Barlow International Competition, and received the first prize of $5,000 for his choral work “Planctus Super Iniquitates Hominum.”  He was awarded several travel scholarships while at Oberlin to pursue topics on music history and theory in Europe.  Even in his later years, he remained close to his music.  In 1983, he began writing a requiem following the death of his mother.  He returned to the piece and revised it in 2009 upon the death of his wife, Barbara Elaine Nuernberger.

A longtime resident of Oberlin, Nuernberger died at age 89 on December 21, 2013.  He was survived by his nieces Linda West and Janis Masin, nephews Richard and Dennis Nuernberger, and several grand-nieces and grand-nephews, all of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Sources Consulted

L. Dean Nuernberger faculty file in RG 28, Alumni and Development Records, Oberlin College Archives.

Note written by Jacob Ertel, Anne Cuyler Salsich