There are 90 candles on the birthday cake of Weston Noble this year. Just think of the light which 90 candles represent – a spectacular sight, to be sure. But I’m not sure 90 brightly burning candles can begin to adequately convey just how luminously this amazing man has lived. I for one can’t think of any other person within my experience who has so profoundly touched so many people in the way that reverberates through the generations. And those generations are almost beyond numbering. Twelve years before I was born, Mr. Noble was already lighting fires in the hearts of young musicians. When I came to Luther as a scrawny and scared freshman, he had been there for thirty years, working his magic. And thirty years after I graduated from Luther, Mr. Noble is still a force with which to be reckoned, unlocking the joy and mystery of music in his own unique, priceless way.
I can remember Mr. Noble’s birthday is November 30th because he shares that birthday with my youngest brother, Nathan. My mom was Mr. Noble’s secretary at the time that Nathan was born, and our family still loves to retell the story of how Mr. Noble waltzed into the hospital and right through all kinds of doorways marked ABSOLUTELY NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS ALLOWED BEYOND THIS POINT until he arrived at my mom’s bedside with a bouquet of flowers in hand. That might not seem like that big a deal, but back in 1969 hospitals were locked down like Fort Knox, and maternity wards especially. My understanding is that Mr. Noble was escorted out of there by what amounted to the hospital’s SWAT team, 🙂 and probably to this day has no idea what all the fuss was about.
I like that story not only because it’s amusing- but also because it serves as a marker of how Mr. Noble has lived his life. . . by walking boldly through every open door, as well as through a few doors that were open just a crack, and some that were bolted shut. Some wonderful opportunities came his way, and he seized each and every one of them with great relish. . . and complete confidence. But it wasn’t so much a confidence that he would succeed or that it would all turn out perfectly- but rather a confidence – an absolute certainty – that with God’s help, great things were sure to happen. Surely that confidence came in handy when he began teaching at Luther when he was scarcely older than the students he was teaching. And it has served him well ever since . . . especially in that moment in the summer of 2007 when a surprising invitation came from Carthage College’s Jim Ripley for Mr. Noble (by that point retired from Luther) to come and serve as the guest conductor-in-residence for the Carthage Choir, who lost their director quite abruptly the previous spring and were in dire need of rebuilding. I think a lot of people would have steered clear of such an invitation, wary of stepping into an uncertain situation, but Mr. Noble seized it as an exciting opportunity- and it proved to be one of the most gratifying experiences of his entire life and career – and the start of a beautiful new collaboration that has, in effect, given Mr. Noble a second musical home. But it would not have been possible had Mr. Noble not stepped boldly through this unexpectedly open door.
As I thought about jotting a few words about Mr. Noble’s birthday, I was also trying to figure out what photograph to use. I have some nice shots of the two of us – as well as a lovely picture of the two of us and Carthage Choir director Eduardo Garcia-Novelli – plus lots of shots of him conducting, including many in which you can see that famous twinkle in his eye. But I decided instead to use a picture from homecoming 2012 in which Mr. Noble is surrounded by thirteen Luther alumni who were privileged to sing under his direction. At first I thought I wouldn’t use this picture because Mr. Noble is just sitting there, looking pleasant but completely passive. But I decided that it was a great picture because every one of those smiling faces is a person who was changed forever by having Mr. Noble as a mentor. And we are just the tiniest drop in the bucket. All across the country are people who would not be who they are – and especially would not be the musicians they are – were it not for the inspiration and guidance afforded them by Weston Noble.
(left to right: Cathy Penning, Julie Sorenson, Mark Penning, Deb Rusch Fordice, Brian Leeper, Annette Kirkpatrick de la Torre, David Ray, Edye Gausman Ray, Barbara Tostenrud Garrett, Nancy Nickerson Lee, Carolyn Roehl, GB, and Bill Fordice – most of us from the class of 1982.)
I’m just one of them. And tonight at the first performance of the Carthage Christmas Festival, I looked at the singers in my group (the Lincoln Chamber Singers) and realized that they were singing with an expression of absolute joy on their faces. It underscored that for all that I lack in choral expertise and experience, I at least know how to make singing fun – and know something about helping people sing with a deep and personal connection to the music they’re singing. And whatever I know about that is due, first and foremost, to Weston Noble. And if one of my chamber singers is ever standing in front of a singing group of their own someday, giving them the same sense of joy in singing, they actually owe any thanks for that to Weston Noble more than to me. So the legacy of Weston Noble reaches well beyond the thousands and thousands of people he has directly taught/ directly touched over the years . . . to people he will never actually meet, but who will be inspired because of someone in their life who once sang under the incomparable Weston Noble.
top row l: Rehearsing Carthage Choir top row r: with Jerry Moe, Luther class of 1949
2nd row l: Dr. Eduardo Garcia-Novelli, WN & GB r: with Carthage student Dan Ermel
3rd row l: Weston Noble Alumni Choir r: w/ WN scholarship winner Justin Marschall
4th row l: rehearsing the WNAC this year r: walking with Luther grad/Carthage prof Jim Ripley
5th row l: rehearsing with the Carthage Choir r: rehearing the CC in Waukesha
6th row l: w/ my father-in-law, Bob Gall r: w/ former Carthage president Alan Anderson
7th row: the final ovation for the final concert of the Weston Noble Alumni Choir.
(at the piano, his devoted friend Kathy Gentes.)