Riemenschneider Bach Institute
Baldwin-Wallace College
Berea, Ohio, USA 44017
(440) 826-2207 munger@bw.edu

As Director of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Melvin P. Unger holds the Riemenschneider Chair in Music History and Literature at the Conservatory of Music at Baldwin-Wallace College. The author of a number of scholarly articles and music editions, including The German Choral Church Compositions of Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729), 248 pp. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1990), Handbook to Bach's Sacred Cantata Texts: an Interlinear Translation with Reference Guide to Biblical Quotations and Allusions, 777 pp. (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1996) and Performance Practice of the Instrumental-Vocal Works of Johann Sebastian Bach, a translation of Karl Hochreither's work, Zur Aufführungs-praxis der Vokal-Instrumentalwerke Johann Sebastian Bachs, 217 pp. (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2002) and J. S. Bach’s Major Works for Voices and Instruments: A Listener’s Guide (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2005).

 

He is a recipient of the American Bach Society's William H. Scheide Fellowship (1996), two American Choral Directors Association's Research Awards (1991, 1997), and the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors 1998 Book Award. Dr. Unger is presently a member of the ACDA Research and Publications Committee, a member of the Advisory Board of the American Bach Society and a member of Performance Practice Review (Claremont Graduate University) advisory board..

Dr. Unger holds degrees in choral music from the Universities of Saskatchewan (Canada), Oregon, and Illinois, and was a conducting student of Helmut Rilling at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt while on a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. His choral groups have appeared at conventions and festivals in Canada, the United States, and Europe. He presently conducts the Singers' Club of Cleveland and the B-W Singers, 1999 to present. B-W Singers honors include performance at convention of Ohio Music Education Association, January, 2006; performance in Severance Hall with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, May, 2005; performance at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, D.C.), October 2004; performance at the convention of Ohio Music Teachers, 2001, 2006.