Jan Bender

BENDER, Jan Oskar. b. in Haarlem, Holland, 3 February 1909; d. Hanerau, Germany, 29 December 1994. Jan Bender was a distinguished church musician, organist, educator, and composer, for whom hymnody was very important.  His mother, Margarette Schindler (1874-1951), was German. His Dutch father, Hermann Bender (1870-1908), a piano dealer, died the year in which Jan was born. In 1922 his mother moved back to her native town, Lübeck, Germany, where Jan studied organ, and began to compose at the Marienkirche. Beginning in 1930, he studied at the Kirchen-musikalisches Institut und Landes Konservatorium in Leipzig. Three years later his teacher, Karl Straube (1873-1950), urged him to return to...