Biography

Bern Herbolsheimer has received recognition throughout the United States and Europe for over 500 works ranging from ballet to symphonic, operatic, chamber and choral works. His numerous major commissions and premieres have included ballets for the Frankfurt Ballet, the Atlanta Ballet

Atlanta Ballet

Atlanta Ballet is a ballet company, located in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the nation’s longest continuously performing ballet company and the State Ballet of Georgia.- History :...

, the Pacific Northwest Ballet

Pacific Northwest Ballet

Pacific Northwest Ballet is a ballet company based in Seattle, Washington in the United States. Founded in 1972 as part of the Seattle Opera and named the Pacific Northwest Dance Association, it broke away from the Opera in 1977 and took its current name in 1978. It is said to have the highest per...

, and the Eugene Ballet

Eugene Ballet

The Eugene Ballet Company is a ballet company based in Eugene, Oregon. It is a resident company of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts....

. His first opera, Aria da Capo, won first prize in the National Opera Association's New Opera Competition. Mark Me Twain, his second opera, was commissioned and premiered in 1993 by the Nevada Opera for its Silver Anniversary season. "The opera is filled with attractive, dramatic, often eloquent music ... it could become an American work of genuine significance."

His Symphony #1 was premiered by the Florida Symphony under conductor Kenneth Jean, and other orchestral music has been premiered by the Seattle Symphony

Seattle Symphony

The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra's season runs from September through July, and serves as the pit orchestra for most productions of the Seattle Opera in addition to its own concerts...

, Northwest Symphony Orchestra, and Music Today in New York under the direction of Gerard Schwarz

Gerard Schwarz

Gerard Schwarz is an American conductor. He was music director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 2011.In 2007 Schwarz was named music director of the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, having served as principal conductor since 2005...

. His vocal and choral music has been performed in Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, South America, Canada, Norway, Russia, Hungary, Japan, and throughout the United States. According to Seattle Weekly, who named him as Best (Classical) Composer in 2005, "no Seattle composer has a more assured and polished craft than Herbolsheimer. His choral writing — and there's a lot of it — is luminous and subtle".

A frequent award winner, Mr. Herbolsheimer has been Seattle Artist-in-Residence (Seattle Arts Commission), Washington State Composer of the Year (WSMTA), and winner of the Melodious Accord Choral Music Competition (Te Deum), in addition to the National Opera Association's New Opera Competition (Aria da Capo). He has also been the recipient of composition commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

 (Symphony #1), Chamber Music America (Tanguy Music), the Seattle Symphony (In Mysterium Tremendum), and from numerous local organizations such as Seattle Men's Chorus, St. James Cathedral, Opus 7, Seattle Pro Musica, the Esoterics and the Cascadian Chorale. His works also appear on recent CDs by St. James Cathedral, Opus 7, Paul Taub, Tony Brown and Lisa Bergman.

As pianist Mr. Herbolsheimer has performed as accompanist at the Bergen International Music Festival, the Schloss Elmau Festival, and on concert series for Columbia Artists, Saint Martin's Abbey, the Spanish Institute, the Goethe Institute, the American Opera Festival of the Sierra, Estoril/Cascais Concerts in Portugal, the Tatarstan Opera in Kazan, Battelle Institute, the Ojai Music Festival, and regularly in the Western Washington area.

Mr. Herbolsheimer served on the music faculty of Seattle's Cornish College, where he taught composition-related classes and held a private studio, and the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, where he taught graduate classes in the voice program. At the end of the 2000-2001 school year he was selected as the Outstanding Teacher of Music at Cornish College.

He is a Northwest composer and is a member of BMI.

Discography

Let Us Sing Sweet Songs

David Mourns for Absalom

THE VISITATION OF THE PRIORY OF ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL WITHOUT STAMFORD

Ashik Dances Before His Love

Te Deum O Lord, save thy people

Seven Last Words

Kader kiç

Love letters

Partial list of works

Composition	Genre	Year	Notes
Symphony #1	Orchestral
Mark Me Twain	Opera	1993
Aria Da Capo	Opera		4 instruments
Childsplay	Chamber	2004	4 instruments
Stille Nacht	Choral	2004	SATB
Once in Royal David's City	Choral		SATB
The Visitation ...	Vocal
O Lord, Increase My Faith	Choral		SATBs
In Mysterium Tremendum	Chamber
Kader kiç	Choral	2005
Lady in Waiting	Vocal
Love Letters	Choral	2005
Childsworld	Chamber	2006
As Water Ascends to a Cloud	Choral	2006
By the Waters of Babylon	Choral	2006
Box Ek T'Ho	Instrumental	2007
Dos Suenos	Choral	2008
La Pitaya	Choral	2007
Musicians Wrestle Everywhere	Choral	2007