Dwight Gustafson

Dwight Gustafson
Dwight Gustafson, October 1993
Born	April 20, 1930(1930-04-20) Seattle, Washington
Nationality	American
Education	Bob Jones University, Florida State University
Occupation	musician
Employer	Bob Jones University
Title	Dean of the School of Fine Arts
Term	1954-94
Predecessor	Karl Keefer
Successor	Darren Lawson
Religion	Baptist
Spouse	Gwendolyn Adams Gustafson
Children	four, including David Gustafson

Dwight Leonard Gustafson (born April 20, 1930) is a composer, conductor, and dean emeritus of the School of Fine Arts, Bob Jones University.

Biography

Gustafson was born in Seattle, Washington of a father who was a meat dealer and lay preacher and a mother who was a pianist and harpist. Despite early violin training, Gustafson was attracted to a career in art and design. As a sophomore at Bob Jones University, he was asked to make sketches for a production of Cyrano de Bergerac and ended by designing the sets. In 1954, shortly before graduating from BJU with an M.A. in music, he was flabbergasted to be asked by the then-president, Bob Jones, Jr., to become dean of the School of Fine Arts. Gustafson was 24.^[1] Eventually he also earned a D. Mus. in composition from Florida State University, and in 1960, he was selected as one of ten young conductors to study at the Aspen School of Music.

Gustafson quickly proved himself a competent administrator who brought to his position a working knowledge of art, music, and drama. He also regularly conducted campus choirs and the Bob Jones Symphony Orchestra, especially in its annual opera productions. Nevertheless, outside fundamentalist circles, Gustafson is best known for his compositions and arrangements, which include more than 160 works, including five film scores, a string quartet, and numerous extended compositions for chorus and orchestra including Three Psalms for Chorus and Orchestra (1989) and Words of Passion and Resurrection (2002). Recent major orchestral works include Encounters (a violin concerto) and "Fantasia for a Celebration", which was commissioned by the Williamsburg (VA) Symphonia as part of the city's 300-year celebration in 1999.^[2] In December 2006, Gustafson premiered a one-act opera, Simeon, about the blessing given by Simeon the Righteous to the Christ child (Luke 2: 25-35).^[3]

When Dwight Gustafson retired as dean after forty years of service, Bob Jones University named the Gustafson Fine Arts Center in his honor.^[4] In 1999, he was awarded the Order of the Palmetto by then-Governor Jim Hodges. Gustafson continues to conduct occasional programs at BJU,^[5] remains active as a conductor of high school all-state choirs and orchestras, and regularly conducts church choir clinics throughout the United States.^[6]

Notes

1. ^ Gustafson recalled, "Some of that was not too smart, but the university had its needs, and we all pitched in." [1]
2. ^ In 2002, BJU presented a retrospective concert of Gustafson's works including Fanfare and Celebration, earlier composed for the Greenville (SC) Symphony (and also played by symphonies in Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky), "Fantasia for a Celebration," selections from feature-length films with live music, several shorter choral works, a movement from his violin concerto, Encounters, and a piece commissioned for the concert, Words of Passion and Resurrection, for chorus and orchestra with narrator. Music Now, the newsletter of the Southern Composers League.
3. ^ Gary Hyndman, "Operatic veteran and novice collaborate to produce 'Simeon,'" Greenville Journal (December 1, 2006), 65, 67.
4. ^ BJU website.
5. ^ Ann Hicks, "Verdi's opera ‘Rigoletto’ returns to BJU", Greenville News, March 11, 2007. In 2007, Gustafson conducted a fifth series of performances of Rigoletto. "Gustafson recalls that his first 'Rigoletto' at BJU...starred Sherrill Milnes, later to become one of the preeminent American Verdi baritones of the late 20th century. 'I was 30 years old and Milnes was 26,' Gustafson says with a laugh. 'Many years have gone by since then.'" Following the curtain calls at the end of a performance of Samson et Dalila on March 13, 2010, the supertitle announced that this would be Gustafson's final performance conducting opera on the BJU stage. (The performance won second place in the National Opera Association's 2009-2010 video competition. NOA website.) On May 7, 2010, during the BJU Commencement Concert, Gustafson conducted the premiere of his three "Songs of Deliverance" for chorus and orchestra in memory of three late friends, Walter Fremont, Joan Mulfinger, and Gunter Salter.
6. ^ Abe Hardesty, "Gustafson is known for musical arrangements: BJU's 'Doctor Gus' is still tuned in to an active lifestyle", Greenville News, December 13, 2006.

References

• Turner, Daniel (October 2001) [1997]. Standing Without Apology: The History of Bob Jones University. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press. pp. 284–86. ISBN 978-1-57-924710-2. 

Persondata
Name	Gustafson, Dwight
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 20, 1930
Place of birth	Seattle, Washington
Date of death
Place of death