Faculty Papers: Richard P. Benedum Papers

Dr. Richard Benedum has received more than 250 grants for performances, workshops, symposia, and research, totaling near three million dollars. He has directed a number of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer seminars and institutes in Vienna, Austria, instructing teachers on the music of Mozart. His research interests include compositional process in Bach’s work, and the meanings and pattern of articulation marks in Bach’s autograph manuscripts, and the operas and early bibliographical studies of Mozart. In 1990 Dr. Benedum wrote and produced a six-part series of programs for National Public Radio called “Mozart: His Music and Letters."

Dr. Benedum was involved in a number of musical pursuits in the Dayton community. He founded the Dayton Bach Society in 1974 and led that organization for 26 years. The Dayton Bach Society was a semi-professional chorus whose repertoire focused on the music of J.S. Bach, but also included sacred music of other composers.The University Archive has a special collection of materials relating the the Dayton Bach Society which was active until 2002. The Bach Society of Dayton is the successor to the former Dayton Bach Society which disbanded after Dr. Benedum's retirement.

Dr. Benedum also wrote the program notes for the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra from 1976 to 2006, many of which can be accessed at the Archive. He was also the organist at Oak Creek United Church of Christ and performed various organ recitals in churches all over Dayton from the time he came to UD in 1973, until his retirement in 2006. Dr. Richard Benedum now lives in Sarasota, Florida and is the organist and choirmaster for Christ Church in Bradenton, Florida. He continues to direct seminars in Vienna, Austria for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Noteworthy items in the Richard P. Benedum Papers:

• Correspondence
• News clippings
• Grant proposals written by Dr. Benedum
  
• The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra programs from 1976-2006 containing program notes written by Dr. Benedum

Dr. Richard Benedum and Dr. Alan Kimbrough

Dr. Richard P. Benedum is a professor emeritus of music at the University of Dayton. He taught for over thirty years in the Performing and Visual Arts Department and was also the Chair of the Music Department twice (1980-1988 and 1996-2001).

Dr. Benedum obtained his bachelor’s degree from Concordia Teachers College in 1966. He received his doctoral degree in organ performance from the University of Oregon and subsequently studied organ and conducting with Helmuth Rilling in Stuttgart, Germany, and musicology with Christoph Wolff at Harvard.

Dr. Benedum and his wife, Julane Rodgers, met in graduate school at the University of Oregon. Ms. Rogers obtained her masters in harpsichordist performance and taught part-time at Wright State University in addition to being a professional musician.

Links relating to Dr. Benedum's NEH sponsored summer institute.