Music Education at BSC
When it comes to music training at Birmingham-Southern, budding young composers and performers can’t help but to take note.
BSC’s Department of Music places a high priority on excellence and features an extraordinary faculty of nationally and internationally recognized artists and teachers, including performers, composers, conductors, music historians, and music educators. Equally impressive is our record of student achievement. Our department offers a variety of music training programs leading to the bachelor and master of music degrees. Plus, the college is located in the heart of the Magic City, which boasts a flourishing arts scene made up of a major orchestra, a flurry of bands, professional opera companies, ballet organizations, theatres, and other groups.
Our music program has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music since 1934. And the program recently was honored with a NATS 2008 Award for Vocal Excellence. The award provides voice scholarships from the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and is only offered to qualified four-year colleges, universities or conservatories with outstanding vocal programs.
Be sure to explore the rest of the Music Department Web site and check out the many offerings and opportunities that are available at Birmingham-Southern.
Mission Statement
The mission of the BSC Department of Music is to provide intensive training within the context of a liberal arts college. We provide music majors with a distinctive pre-professional program of strength and rigor to prepare qualified students for graduate or professional schools of the first caliber and for professions in music. In the best tradition of the professional music school, the department seeks to challenge all students musically and intellectually, while doing so in an environment that cultivates the talent and world view of each student, and nourishes a sense of collegiality among its student body. In recognition of its role as an academic program in the only nationally recognized liberal arts school in the state, the department provides all students with exceptional academic and creative opportunities.
Immersed in the Musician’s Life
Beenken accepted to national opera artists’ program
Birmingham-Southern junior Timothy Beenken, a music performance major from Vestavia Hills, has been named a 2008 Studio Artist and is awarded entrance into the Wolf Trap Summer Opera Studio Artist Program in Vienna, Va., this summer. Beenken is one of 16 singers selected from 793 applicants nationwide. The highly competitive summer residency program is open to undergraduate singers of significant potential and has gained worldwide recognition. Studio artists chosen for the program will sing small roles and chorus in Wolf Trap Opera Company main-stage productions, present a scenes program, and study a rigorous performance-based curriculum. The Wolf Trap Opera Co., founded in 1971, is America’s National Park for the Performing Arts.
Award-winning BSC students perform with local orchestra
Three Birmingham-Southern student musicians were selected as winners of the college’s eighth annual Whittington Music Competition and appeared as soloists in a February campus concert with the Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra, directed by 1988 BSC alumnus Mark Ridings, accompanied Shelby Bowling, a junior vocal performance major from Mobile; Anna Underwood, a junior music major and pianist from Homewood; and Sirena Wang, a senior double major in music and international business and pianist from Huntsville. The highly competitive Whittington Music Competition is named for Frances and Dorsey Whittington, who were leaders of the Birmingham Conservatory of Music which later became the Music Department at Birmingham-Southern.
Birmingham-Southern music students record success in voice competitions
Birmingham-Southern music students Timothy Beenken, Shelby Bowling, and Hannah Ellington have achieved recent success 
at the district and regional level.
Beenken, a junior music performance major from Vestavia, and Bowling, a junior music major from Daphne, placed in the National Career Award Competition in Voice, an annual competition by the National Society of Arts and Letters (NSAL). Singers between the ages of 21 and 30 from across the Southeast competed in this regional competition held on the BSC campus. Bowling finished second and Beenken finished third.
Ellington, a sophomore voice performance major from Indian Springs, was named the winner in the Birmingham district of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. This national competition was one of 45 districts within 15 regionals throughout the U.S. and Canada. She later competed at the regional level in Memphis, placing sixth out of 11. Beenken also participated in this audition where he won on Encouragement Award.
BSC students win organ competition awards
Four Birmingham-Southern organ students, under the tutelage of BSC Professor of Music Dr. James Cook are winners of organ competitions, including a regional competition:
Senior Patrick Scott tied for first place in the Clarence Dickinson Festival at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Miss. Scott, a music performance major from Picayune, Miss., was a winner in the advanced division of the competition.
Scott and BSC senior Richard Byrd were jointly awarded the Myrtle Jones Steele Scholarship through a competition sponsored by the Birmingham chapter of the American Guild of Organists. The scholarship is named for the late patron of the arts in Birmingham and a benefactor of the BSC Music Department. Byrd is a church music major from Mountain Brook. 
BSC sophomore Kenny Lewis, a music major from Mount Olive, received the Minnie McNeil Carr Scholarship for the second consecutive year. This award is named for the first organist of Independent Presbyterian Church in Birmingham who taught organ students in the college’s 
conservatory for many years.
David Talley IV, a junior music performance major from Pleasant Grove, received the only scholarship award to an organ student by the Birmingham Music Club this year. The annual competition is open to all undergraduate students at Alabama institutions of higher learning with music departments accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. Talley’s award for his achievement among undergraduate organists makes the third consecutive year he’s been recognized by the organization. Talley also won the local competition for young artists held in Chattanooga and placed second at the regional competition in Houston.
Young composer wins national honor
Mary Elizabeth Neal, a 2006 Birmingham-Southern alumna, has been named the national winner in the 2008 Music Teachers National Association Student Composition Competition, young artist category, for her piece for solo cello, Combustion. The piece was performed recently at the group’s national conference in Denver. Neal is pursuing a master’s degree at Florida State University under the tutelage of Dr. Ladislav Kubik. She received her bachelor’s degree in music composition, studying with Dorothy Hindman and Charles Norman Mason. She also has won third place in the choral division of the 2006 Orpheus Alliance Student Composition Competition for her piece Psalm 137. The Music Teachers National Association is a nonprofit organization comprised of 24,000 independent and collegiate music teachers committed to advancing the value of music study and music making to society and to supporting the professionalism of music teachers.