Maestros of Ministry: Their Legacy in the Department of Music and Worship

INTRODUCTION |  x i INTRODUCTION On Becoming the Department of Music and Worship The west entrance of the Dixon Ministry Center annually welcomes thousands of visitors, faculty, staff, and students to the Bolthouse Center for Music. The current home of the Department of Music and Worship at Cedarville University boasts a 243-seat state-of-the-art Recital Hall, a Mac lab equipped with music production and notation software; spacious classrooms, practice rooms, and private studios; choral, orchestral, band, and worship rehearsal spaces; and a centrally located student lounge where students meet to study, fellowship, and pray together. The facilities and equipment generously support a thriving Department that develops students with majors in Composition, Keyboard Pedagogy, Music, Music Education, Performance, and Worship. Getting to this point over a long and varied history is a story of God’s grace and wise provision. Right from Cedarville College’s beginning, there has been a designated Department of Music with a Director. The College’s first annual academic catalog of 1895–1896 explains the mission of the Department: “to lay a thorough and broad foundation of the highest musical culture.” At first, the course offerings were elective and supplemen- tal, primarily enhancing a classically based education and equipping musicians for church ministry. In the academic catalog of 1910–1911, Cedarville College offered a diploma in Music, and allowed eighteen credit hours in Music to count toward a B.A. degree in other areas. Music courses were later added as requirements for the B.S. in Education degrees, and by 1951, a Music or Art Appreciation course was required of all B.A. degrees. In 1953, the revival of Cedarville College with the support of the Baptist Bible Institute and under the leadership of President James T. Jeremiah, afforded the Music Department renewed growth with the acquisition of William Paul Ambrose as head of the Department.