Herbert Collum

Herbert Collum (18 July 1914 − 29 April 1982) was a German organist, harpsichordist, composer and conductor.

Born in Leipzig, between 1921 and 1929 Collum attended a primary school in Leipzig. Afterwards he studied the organ from 1930 to 1934 with Karl Straube and Günther Ramin, the piano with Carl Adolf Martienssen, with Choir conducting with Kurt Thomas and musical composition with Johann Nepomuk David at the Kirchenmusikalisches Institut (Leipzig). Fritz Reuter was also one of his teachers there. Already from 1927 he was deputy organist at the St. Matthäikirche Leipzig. From 1932 to 1935 he worked as assistant to Professor Günther Ramin at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig. His main creative phase was the period as Dresden organist, which began with his appointment in 1935 and ended with his death in April 1982 at the age of 67. Michael-Christfried Winkler was elected as his successor.

In 1946 he founded the Collum Choir and the Collum Concerts. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, a total of 24 Collum concerts took place between September 1949 and August 1950. Soloists, the Collum Choir and members of the Sächsische Staatskapelle performed under Collum's direction. Performance venues were the Dresdner Martin Luther Church in the Neustadt and the Reformed Church, because the Kreuzkirche, which burned down in 1945, could not yet be used again.

During his time as a cross organist Collum also took on various teaching assignments. From 1942 to 1945 and again between 1954 and 1956, he was a teacher at the Heinrich-Schütz-Konservatorium Dresden [de] and subsequently, until 1958, he was a lecturer for organ at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden. From 1949 to 1961, Collum also taught organ at the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule. In 1960 he was appointed professor. From 1964 he was a lecturer for harpsichord at the Dresden Musikhochschule. In the same year he was appointed to the jury of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition.

In 1942 he married the singer and teacher Herta Maria Böhme-Collum. Only one year later, Christian Collum [de] emerged from the union of the two church musicians.

Collum was buried according to his last wish in Reinhardtsgrimma. He frequently gave concerts on the Silbermann organ of the church there and also made a recording in the series "Bach's Organ Works on Silbermann Organs". The concert tradition founded by him is successfully continued under the direction of the present cross organist Holger Gehring. That is why this organ is one of the most famous organs in Saxony.

In 1973 Collum received the Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic. In Dresden, the Herbert-Collum-Straße was later named after him.

The estate of Herbert Collum is kept in the Saxon State and University Library Dresden.