A Day of Musical Events to Celebrate ‘Zig’

In a public ceremony replete with orchestral and choral music, Siegwart ‘Zig’ Reichwald will be installed as the Adams professor of music and worship on Friday, September 29, at 10:30 am in Murchison Gym. The formal ceremony serves as a prelude to a day of public events that include a keynote address and chamber concert. 

Chelle Stearns, an affiliate faculty member of the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, will offer the charge to the candidate. The Westmont College Choir and Orchestra will premiere a setting of Psalm 121 composed by Steve Butler, Westmont professor of music.

Reichwald, who replaced inaugural Adams professor Michael Shasberger in fall 2022, earned a doctorate in musicology and a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from Florida State University. He teaches History of Western Music and is a member of the chapel team. 

He will explore Felix Mendelssohn’s last two chamber works, “String Quintet, Op. 87” and “String Quartet, Op. 80,” as Psalm-like compositions at the keynote address at 3:30 pm in the Global Leadership Center. Douglass Seaton, emeritus Warren D. Allen professor of music at FSU, and Sandra Richter, Robert H. Gundry professor of biblical studies, will respond to Reichwald’s lecture.

Han Soo Kim, Westmont professor of violin, and other musicians will perform “Psalms without Words: Mendelssohn’s Late Chamber Works” at a chamber concert at 7:30 pm in Deane Chapel. A reception follows the performance.

Reichwald’s latest publication, Mendelssohn and the Genesis of the Protestant A Cappella Movement, is due to be released in November.