James A. Engebretson, age 83, recently of Hugo, MN, passed away on May 6.

Born and raised in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, Jim was a well-known music educator, composer, arranger, and French Horn player who spent his career in the Twin Cities and, in retirement, lived on Yonah Mountain in Sautee-Nacoochee, Georgia.

Jim received his BA in Music Education from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he studied under Weston Noble. That is also where he met and married Audrey Burch, his loving wife of 62 years and mother of their five children. Jim earned his MA from Drake University in Des Moines where he studied music composition with Francis Pyle. Jim studied horn with J. Christopher Leuba, Robert Elworthy and Philip Farkas. In the late 1980s he pursued graduate studies at the University of Minnesota in electronic music and computer music notation.

Jim had a 37-year career teaching instrumental music, first in Iowa and then, from 1961 to 1993, in Minnesota in the Mounds View School District. For many summers he taught continuing education to band directors at Villanova University in Philadelphia.

He was a jobbing horn player in the Twin Cities and performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Guthrie Theatre, Minnesota Orchestra, International Horn Club, Metropolitan Opera Company, and was a founding member of both the North Metropolitan Brass Quintet and the Lake Wobegon Brass Band. He also had fun over the years doing Saturday night gigs with Ted Eastman’s dance band playing wedding receptions. In retirement, he taught college horn students in north Georgia, played with the Taccoa Symphony, and founded and played in the Mount Yonah Brass Quintet. Jim was an active composer/arranger. He published more than 80 trio and quartet arrangements for younger players with Ed Sueta Publications and he published professional-level brass and woodwind quintet arrangements with Grand Mesa Music and online with JW Pepper ePrint. His two-volume work, Hymns for Ensembles, was published by Augsburg Fortress and provides instrumentalists young and old the opportunity to participate in church services by playing along with popular Evangelical Lutheran Worship songs. As a native son of Wisconsin, Jim was proud to have 13 of his ensemble compositions placed on the Wisconsin School Musician Association official festival list.

Luther College presented Jim the Carlo Sperati Award, recognition for an exemplary musical career named for Carlo Sperati, 1888 Luther graduate, professor emeritus, founder of the Luther College Concert Band and the driving force behind all music touring at Luther College.

Jim Engebretson was a gentleman and a class act. He was the kind of guy who could fly off to New York City in the middle of the week to play Carnegie Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra, get on a red-eye that night and be back at school teaching kids the next day without telling anybody where he had been (1983).

Jim was a devoted husband, a patient and loving father, a doting grandfather, and a man of deep, abiding Christian faith. His father Engebret (Bert) was a Norwegian immigrant who was very proud that Jim was born on May 17, Syttende Mai, Norway’s Constitution Day. Jim was a lifetime member of Sons of Norway and enjoyed several trips to Norway where he and Audrey, also of Norwegian heritage, connected with many relatives.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Irene (Gilbertson) and Bert, and his brother Robert. He is survived by his loving wife, Audrey; sons Mikael (Jaylee), Steven (Alice), Thomas, and Jon; daughter Ann (Kurt) Christensen; grandchildren Berit (Brent) Dockter; Erick (Michaela) Engebretson; Ariel, Ian, Addam, and Eva Engebretson; Dane (Amanda) Christensen; Claire and Rachel Engebretson; sister Solveig Kleppe; Aunt Beverly Bahnub; and many wonderful cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends.

A celebration of Jim’s life and musical legacy will take place on Thursday, May 24 at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 1900 7th Street NW, New Brighton, MN, with visiting beginning at 10am, the service at 11am, and a luncheon to follow.

Cremation services were provided by Cremation Society of Minnesota. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Jim’s name to Little Norway Lutheran Church, 605 Monroe Street, Black River Falls, Wisconsin 54615.

Published on May 15, 2018