Introduction

Biography

Hildebrand was the hus­band of Zo­na T. Wise (mar­ried 1902). His par­ents and oth­er mem­bers of his fa­mi­ly were Men­non­ites, but his mem­ber­ship was with the Unit­ed Breth­ren Church.

He at­tend­ed the pub­lic schools and She­nan­do­ah Sem­in­ary. His mo­ther taught him to sing as soon as he could talk, but his first re­gu­lar teach­er was D. M. Click.

He lat­er stu­died with James Rue­bush, Ben­ja­min Un­seld, P. J. Merges, George and Fred­er­ick Root, C. B. Shaw, F. H. Tubbs and oth­ers.

He be­gan teach­ing sing­ing schools in the sum­mer while pur­su­ing his col­lege stu­dies. He was elect­ed prin­ci­pal of the Day­ton Mu­sic School in 1894, re­sign­ing in 1899 to be­come Di­rect­or of Mu­sic at Bridge­wa­ter Col­lege, Vir­gin­ia.

He was liv­ing in Ba­sic City, Vir­gin­ia, in 1920, and in Ash­by, Vir­gin­ia, in 1930.

He owned the Hil­de­brand-Bur­nette mu­sic pub­lish­ing firm in Waynes­bo­ro, Vir­gin­ia, and helped ed­it sev­er­al mu­sic books.

Works

• Onward and Up­ward, with James D. Vaugh­an (Lo­gans­port, In­di­ana: Home Mu­sic, 1898)
• On­ward and Up­ward No. 2, with William Giffe (Lo­gans­port, In­di­ana: Home Mu­sic, 1900)
• The Path­way of Praise No. 1, with C. J. Gil­bert (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Fill­more Bro­thers, 1904)