John Diercks was born in Montclair, New Jersey

Montclair, New Jersey

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 38,977 people, 15,020 households, and 9,687 families residing in the township. The population density was 6,183.6 people per square mile . There were 15,531 housing units at an average density of 2,464.0 per square mile...

, in 1927. He holds degrees in composition

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

 from Oberlin

Oberlin Conservatory of Music

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the campus of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Students of Oberlin Conservatory enter a very broad network within the music world, as the school's alumni...

, the Eastman School

Eastman School of Music

The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...

, and the University of Rochester

University of Rochester

The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...

 (PhD). His composition teachers included Howard Hanson

Howard Hanson

Howard Harold Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music...

 and Alan Hovhaness

Alan Hovhaness

Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...

. For Asian music and dance he studied with Dorothy Kahananui and Halla Huhm.

Dr. Diercks taught piano at the College of Wooster (1950-54), then began a long tenure at Hollins University

Hollins University

Hollins University is a four-year institution of higher education, a private university located on a campus on the border of Roanoke County, Virginia and Botetourt County, Virginia...

, teaching theory and composition. He served as department chair from 1962 until 1990. His songs were frequently promoted by baritone Oscar J. McCullough, also a Professor at Hollins.

Among many grants and awards he has received are those 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...

, the National Endowment for the Humanities

National Endowment for the Humanities

The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...

, the Mellon

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...

 and Danforth

Danforth Foundation

Danforth Foundation is one of the largest private non-for profit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. The foundation has 1.5 billion USD in assets as of 2003. Established in 1927 by Ralston Purina founder William H. Danforth and his wife, the Danforth Foundation grants funds...

 foundations, and ASCAP. As a composer he has enjoyed residence at the MacDowell Colony

MacDowell Colony

The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...

, Wolf Trap Farm, and the Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 Center for the Creative Arts.

Much of Diercks’ music is influenced by exoticism

Exoticism

Exoticism is a trend in art and design, influenced by some ethnic groups or civilizations since the late 19th-century. In music exoticism is a genre in which the rhythms, melodies, or instrumentation are designed to evoke the atmosphere of far-off lands or ancient times Exoticism (from 'exotic')...

, including microtonality

Microtonal music

Microtonal music is music using microtones—intervals of less than an equally spaced semitone. Microtonal music can also refer to music which uses intervals not found in the Western system of 12 equal intervals to the octave.-Terminology:...

 and “unconventional” musical sounds. An early work, Cave Music for vocalise

Vocalise

A vocalise is a vocal exercise without words, which is sung on one or more vowel sounds.-In classical music:Vocalise dates back to the mid-18th century...

 and three players on prepared piano

Prepared piano

A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers....

, accompanied a dance performed in Virginia’s Dixie Caverns

Dixie Caverns

Dixie Caverns is a commercial show cave located in the Riverside community of Roanoke County, Virginia, 4 miles west of Salem. The cave is a limestone solution cave.- Description and access :...

 and broadcast on NBC-TV’s Today Show.

His Twelve Sonatinas, performed by pianist Marthanne Verbit, are in the catalog of Albany Records

Albany Records

Albany Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Peter Kermani in 1987, and is based in Albany, New York.-External links:**...

. In 2009 the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America

Guild of Carillonneurs in North America

The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America is a professional society of carillonneurs in the United States and Canada, dedicated to the promotion of the carillon art. The GCNA was founded in Ottawa, Ontario in 1936 and is a member of the World Carillon Federation . It holds an annual congress at...

 published his Fugue in C (for Elizabeth Graves Vitu) and Fantasia (commissioned by the University of Iowa-Ames).

Now living in Honolulu, Diercks served as president of the Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 Music Teachers Association from 1992-94.

Compositions

• About a lamb: four poems by Blake, for voice and piano (songs)
• Alleluia, for SSAA a cappella chorus
• The Bee Caresses the Flower as the Elephant Destroys the Stable, for piano four hands
• Clap your hands!, for voices and piano or organ, SATB choir optional (unison anthem)
• Concertino for oboe and band
• Concertino for piano and woodwind quintet
• Diversion for two clarinets and piano
• Diversion for two clarinets and strings
• Dove of Peace, and other early American hymns for unison voices with organ and handbells
• Fantasy, for horn and piano
• Figures on China, for horn, trombone, and tuba
• For a time and place, for two pianos
• He is risen, alleluia, Easter anthem for two-part mixed choir (with brass)
• Horn quartet
• How long, O Lord: Psalm eighty, for SATB choir and organ (anthem)
• Jesus is my sure defense (Jesu meine Zuversicht), chorale prelude
• Kongai: The soul of the great bell, for carillon
• A Little JSB Suite, for two pianos
• Lord, I cry unto thee, Lenton and general anthem for SATB voices
• Lyric suite, for violin, B-flat clarinet or viola, and cello
• A mighty fortress (chorale prelude)
• Mirror of brass, for brass septet (2 B-flat trumpets, horn 1 or trumpet 3, horn 2 or trombone 3, trombones 1 and 2, tuba or tenor-bass trombone)
• Moonspell (or Moon Spell), for piano four hands
• Night vision, for two pianos
• O Christ, thou lamb of God (chorale prelude)
• O how fleeting, how deceiving (chorale prelude)
• O sacred head (chorale prelude)
• Prelude to Manvantara, for carillon
• Quartet, for 2 B-flat trumpets, F horn, and trombone
• Quintet for strings and piano
• Reminiscences, for two quarter-tone pianos
• Six Sacred Compositions, for organ (pipe organ and Hammond registration)
• Sonata for oboe and piano
• A star arises, Op. 52 (cantata)
• Suite for alto saxophone and piano
• Suite for flute and organ
• Suite for flute and piano /
• Suite for Strings, for string orchestra with optional piano
• Suite no. 1, for piano, four hands
• Theme and variations, for piano
• Twelve Sonatinas for piano
• Two Psalms: Psalm 23
  Psalm 23
  In the 23rd Psalm in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the writer describes God as his Shepherd. The text, beloved by Jews and Christians alike, is often alluded to in popular media and has been set to music....
  
  , Psalm 150
• Variations on a theme of Gottschalk, for tuba and piano
• Three Diversions, for flute (alto recorder) and piano (or harpsichord)
• Two Israeli dances /
• Wind Quintet
• Variations on a Flower Drum Song, for two pianos
• Variations on a Flower Drum Song, for two pianos
• Why do the nations rage? (Psalm 2
  Psalm 2
  Psalm 2 is the second Psalm of the Bible. It tells us that we can either defy God and perish, or submit to him and be blessed. Psalm 2 itself does not identify its author, but Acts 4:25-26 clearly attributes it to David.-In the original Hebrew:...
  
  ), general anthem for unison voices

External links

• John Diercks page