PROFESSOR'S WIFE DONATES EXTENSIVE MUSIC COLLECTION

For three decades, Pierre Huybregts’ music was alive in concerts and in classrooms on the University of West Florida campus. Now, the accomplishments of the late music professor will live on through his extensive personal and professional music collection donated by his wife Betty Huybregts to the university.

Pierre Huybregts was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and graduated from the Royal Conservatory there. His musical studies took him to Vienna, Paris, and the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. In 1981, he made his musical debut in New York at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. In 1991, Huybregts was selected as a Steinway Artist. The classical concert pianist produced more than 20 albums and 12 compact discs. He performed extensively in the United States and Europe; his orchestral performances included the Belgian National Orchestra, l’Orchestre de Versailles, the New Orleans Symphony, and the Brussels Flemish Chamber Orchestra. Though he traveled the world and spoke five languages, Huybregts called Pensacola his home for more than 30 years. He was a professor of music at UWF from 1970 until his death in 2003.

Betty Huybregts has donated her husband’s special collection of music and personal memorabilia to the UWF John C. Pace Library on the UWF main campus in Pensacola. Mrs. Huybregts spent more than two years meticulously reviewing, sorting and cataloging the material.

The collection includes hundreds of music scores, books, recorded rehearsals and concerts, master recordings, correspondence, photographs, published interviews, professional awards, albums and CDs. Much of the material will be shelved in the main library for general circulation, but all items of a personal nature or containing personal annotations will be stored in the
Special Collections Department.  

“It is an honor to hold these resources for use by current and future UWF students and researchers,” said Helen Wigersma, former UWF interim dean of libraries, and one of the first people Mrs. Huybregts spoke with about the donation. “As a professor emeritus, Pierre Huybregts represented the best of the UWF faculty, and I think he would be happy to know that his collections will be available to inspire students and others.”

Dan North, head of Acquisitions/Collection Development at the library, said the donation is the most significant music gift ever received. “As an internationally known performing and recording classical pianist, Pierre Huybregts assembled a strong collection of nearly 2,000 classical keyboard scores, not only of music by the great 18th-19th-century masters such as Bach, Beethoven and Chopin, but also of 20th-century composers, including quite a few by the Catalan composer Mompou, whose works Pierre performed and recorded, plus many by composers from Belgium, Pierre’s homeland. For the library, the contemporary music is the most important part of the gift and greatly strengthens our piano music collection.”

Special Collections serves as the University Archives for UWF and acts as the “memory” of the University. “Pierre Huybregts was an internationally known pianist, and we are proud to preserve his legacy and contributions to the music world and our university,” said Dean DeBolt, university archivist and special collections librarian.

According to Bill Dollarhide, owner of Dollarhide’s Music Center in downtown Pensacola, the collection includes valuable sheet music that is no longer available or in print and that may have never been available in the United States. Adding to its value are Huybregts’ own personal annotations offering guidance to the performer.

When asked about her husband’s legacy, Mrs. Huybregts commented: “My husband Pierre was an internationally renowned classical concert pianist and recording artist; he was an inspiring professor of piano; and most importantly to me, Pierre was a wonderful husband. After his death in 2003, I instituted the Pierre P. Huybregts Piano Scholarship Endowment at UWF to benefit upper-division piano majors. Now, in addition to the scholarship funds, these students will also have access to Pierre’s amazing, life-long personal and professional collection. I know that Pierre would be happy to know that his wonderful collection will now be valued and safely housed in a place that he loved – the University of West Florida.”