Herbert Henke Papers

Herbert H. Henke (1931-2015) was born on May 29, 1931 in Cleveland, Ohio to Gustav and Antije Henke. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1953 with a Bachelor of Music Education degree. The following year, in 1954, Henke received a Bachelor of Music degree in voice and a Master of Music Education degree. After graduation, Henke worked at the Cleveland Public Schools where he was a vocal music instructor, a position he held from 1954 until 1956. He became a supervisor and vocal music teacher for the K-12 grades in 1956 for the Oberlin City Schools. In 1958, Henke was appointed as a professor of music education at the University of Maryland. He later became an assistant professor of music education at the Oberlin College Conservatory in 1962. He was promoted to full professor in 1972.

Henke was known at Oberlin for his nontraditional and innovative teaching techniques. He believed that good teachers needed to inspire curiosity in their students. He created activities that he likened to puzzles to help students understand unfamiliar musical concepts. Henke taught his students using techniques from the Dalcroze Eurhythmics philosophy. Emile Jacques-Dalcroze believed that music should be a full body experience in which music is physically experienced. Henke had briefly studied eurhythmics under Inda Howland, professor of Eurhythmics, while he was a student at Oberlin College. After Howland retired, Henke received the H.H. Powers Travel grant from Oberlin in 1977 and traveled to Holland to study Eurhythmics at the Rotterdam Conservatorium. He began teaching the Dalcroze method upon his return to Oberlin. He earned a license in Dalcroze Eurhythmics in 1989 from Carnegie Mellon University.

During his sabbaticals from Oberlin, Henke travelled extensively and worked as a visiting professor at many college and universities. He gave workshops for music teachers for the European Council of International Schools in Brussels and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools in England. In 1973 he was a music consultant for the National Center of the Arts in El Salvador. He was also sponsored by UNESCO to work as a music consultant for the National Youth Symphony Program in Costa Rica in 1978.  From 1981 to 1982, he was director of choral music and acting chairman of the music department at The American School in London. He was a guest professor at the University of Gothenburg and the State Academy of Music in Sweden, where he lectured on American choral music, music education, and eurhythmics in 1984 and 1985. During that same period of time he also conducted research on the effectiveness of different techniques for teaching music to minority students through the Oberlin College Curriculum Development Fellowship.

Outside of his academic career, Henke enjoyed performing as a soloist and conducting orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. He was a guest conductor for the American Wind Ensemble and Choir Festival of Great Britain, held in 1977. He returned to that festival in 1982 to appear as a guest conductor for a second time. He was an active member of the First Church in Oberlin, and was its director of music from 1962 to 1969, 1974 to 1976, and in 1981. He was a member of the Dalcroze Society of America, the Ohio Music Education Association, the International Society of Music Education, and the Music Educators National Conference.

Henke married Sabra Lee Chambers ‘53 on August 29, 1953. He and his wife had three children; Kevin (b. 1954), Lia (b.1958), and Jeanine (b. 1965). Henke retired from the Oberlin College and Conservatory in 1999. He passed away on August 16, 2015.

Source

Herbert H. Henke staff file, Alumni & Development Records (RG 28), Oberlin College Archives.

Note written by Anne Cuyler Salsich