During the fall semester, I wrote the following for our College of Arts and Media magazine, Précis. It gives a sense of the convictions that have shaped our department over the decades.
I recently had the very meaningful fun of reflecting with Ed Bryant on our own experiences in music education and on how those experiences relate to what makes Southeastern’s Department of music distinctive. As a faculty member for 21 years, and as our current chair, Mr. Bryant has a seasoned perspective on our department’s past, present, and future.
As soon as I asked what makes music instruction at Southeastern unique, Mr. Bryant said, “the faith aspect.” As he framed it, “We see what we do in the light of God’s creation.” We model moving beyond culturally assigned labels of secular and sacred to recognize that, whether or not an artist chooses to give glory to God, the very act of creating bears witness to a presence in our lives that is both constructive and caring. As he put it, “When we create, we are being like our Father.”
Following from this premise, we have not been afraid to engage different styles of music. A great many departments focus on the supposedly learnèd traditions of classical music while neglecting the musical practices through which today’s students are most likely to build their careers. And in some Christian settings, there is a narrow emphasis on music designed explicitly for church use which leaves students at a loss regarding the larger conversations of genius and achievement in the professional realm. Decades ago, the vision was set for our department to serve not only the worship needs of Christian communities but also to prepare students to pursue musical work with excellence wherever a Christian witness is needed.
Toward that end, we provide degrees in music business, education, and performance in addition to church music. And this makes for an exciting dynamic keeping with Southeastern’s general trajectory of holding to small-university values while making large-university opportunities available. So it is that, in a department which has been able to maintain roughly a 12 to 1 student-professor ratio, students regularly participate in courses and ensembles as diverse as Marching Band Techniques, Hip Hop and American Culture, Worship Lab, String Quartet, Jazz Band, and Concert Choir.
Pursuing such an inclusive educational vision requires a stance of perpetual innovation as well as access to resources, and it is very much to Southeastern’s credit that, over the years, provisions have been made for the creation of such possibilities. High-quality learning spaces have been built, scholarships have continued to grow, and crucial investments have been made in technologies that will be key to the careers of the future. In the post-pandemic world, more music will be made on-line than ever before, and in the present day, a radical rethinking is required to continue our department’s wide-ranging offerings. This fall, we welcomed several new faculty members who bring “a world of experience,” as Mr. Bryant describes it, to bear on these realities.
As we wrapped up our talk, we agreed that one of our most fulfilling joys is to see what alumni take from their time with us to create fresh witnesses in the world whether that is Dr. Seth Pendergast mentoring music educators at Colorado State, Carlos Santiago performing on the Netflix show Sing On!, Aldyn Broach and Erika Winter teaching music in the schools of Duval County, Evan Eliason doing production at the Vanguard Room, or Tatiana-Myriam Nicoleau leading worship for a congregation of Facebook followers . . .
