Established on 12.08.1998 by Dr. David Hendricksen, in honor of Ruth Berge †
I (David Hendricksen) attended Concordia College from the fall of 1973 on-and-off until eventually graduating in spring of 1983, with a Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance and Music Education. Eventually, I also earned master's and doctoral degrees in music, and spent my career teaching at the college level, conducting choirs in several communities, and serving as a church musician. Across my years as a student at Concordia, one consistent factor was Ruth Berge, who taught organ.
Herself a Concordia graduate from 1942 in Music and English, Ruth completed the Master of Music degree at the University of Michigan in 1944. After teaching one year at Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa, she joined the music faculty at Concordia in the fall of 1945, remaining until retirement in the spring of 1988. During most of her time at Concordia, she also served as organist at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead and was an active participant in the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
Ruth was marked by a high degree of intellectual curiosity and immense enthusiasm for the progress of her students. Always open to considering new ideas in repertoire and musical interpretation, she also helped us students hone our musical skills by learning to critique interpretive choices. Once we settled on an approach, she helped us play the music – not her way, but our way, better. Merely playing the right notes was insufficient – we needed to play with musical and emotional communication.
Constantly learning herself, Ruth regularly participated in summer sessions and seminars, as well as a Fulbright Scholarship to Oslo, Norway in 1950-1951. In the 1970s, there was a substantial revolution in the approach to baroque music in general, including the organ works of J. S. Bach. Ruth learned about this in seminars at the Eastman School of Music, and when I finally came back to Concordia for my senior year in 1982-1983, I was the beneficiary of her knowledge of the research into performance practice.
Ruth thought it important that we organ students get exposure to some of the top performers and pedagogues in the field, even though our remote geographical location made that more of a challenge than for those in major metropolitan areas. So, Concordia, in cooperation with the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists, brought distinguished musicians to Fargo-Moorhead. I remember recitals and masterclasses with McNeil Robinson, Arthur Poister, Martin Haselböck, Marilyn Mason, and John Ferguson.
One memory, in particular, stands out. In the spring of 1975, world-famous organist, Marie-Claire Alain was playing an organ concert on a newly installed instrument at Carlton College in Northfield, MN. Ruth drove down with a carload including me and two other organ students. After the splendid program, there was a long line waiting to greet Mlle. Alain. Our group was well back in the line. At some point, Mlle. Alain caught a glimpse of Ruth and left her spot – leaving the line stranded – and ran with open arms to embrace Ruth. We, students, were dumbfounded – here was this world-famous musician rushing to greet our teacher from a small college in rural Minnesota!
The Ruth Berge Scholarship Fund is awarded by the Office of Financial Aid to students in their junior and senior year majoring in music, with preference given for students in organ who are preparing for service in church music. Selection is also based on scholastic achievement and financial need.