Henry S. Fusner, Nashville resident from 1970 to 2015, died February 2. He was 91. Born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, in 1923, Fusner grew up in New Jersey, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School and a doctorate from the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary. His teachers included Gaston M.
The Diapason’s inaugural “20 under 30” selections came from a field that included over 100 nominations, a response that surprised and delighted us. The nominees were evaluated based upon information provided in the nominations; we selected only from those who had been nominated.
Wilbur Held, composer, teacher, and servant “gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29), died on March 24, 2015, in Claremont, California, a few months shy of his 101st birthday. A deeply thoughtful and meticulous musician, Held crafted elegant preludes, postludes, and hymn settings that remain central to the repertoire of church organists around the globe.
The arrival of the Christian faith in Nigeria in the mid-nineteenth century dramatically changed the musical landscape in the West African nation through the exploits of the missionaries from Europe and southern United States, as well as the imperial colonial administration from England.
