School of Music

Brown Bannister

Brown Bannister brings nearly four decades of industry experience to his work as Director of the School of Music. Best known as a successful mentor and producer for top Christian artists, his work actually includes a broad range of production, engineering, arranging and writing credits across contemporary music genres. He has collaborated with artists such as B.J. Thomas, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Steve Wariner, Steven Curtis Chapman, Kenny Rogers, Kris Allen, Third Day, Mercy Me, CeCe Winans and Michael Tait.

In the process of selling more than 50 million records, Bannister has won 15 GRAMMY® Awards, more than 20 Dove Awards and has been named “Producer of the Year” five times by the Gospel Music Association. He is a member the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

“At this point in my career, I am eager to have an opportunity to make an impact on future music professionals by sharing my experiences and lessons learned in my nearly 40 years in the business,” says Bannister of his move to university teaching. “I look forward to mentoring these students, helping them make connections with industry experts, giving them hands-on learning opportunities and preparing them for their careers by providing a strong inter-disciplinary educational foundation. I look forward to this opportunity, and am especially excited about being a part of a Christian institution with which I share common values and beliefs.”

In April 2015, Lipscomb University achieved the internationally respected “All-Steinway” status and now provides its students with all Steinway pianos for lessons, practicing and performing, accelerating the students to a higher level of musicianship that these superb instruments provide and demand.

The All-Steinway School designation is awarded by Steinway & Sons to universities, conservatories and other schools of distinction. Lipscomb University joined more than 170 institutions around the world who have earned this designation as of 2015. The school worked for eight years, phasing out non-Steinway pianos and raising funds, to achieve the designation. 

A 2013 Steinway & Sons study showed that music educators believe that an All-Steinway designation reflects a higher degree of quality in music education at the partnering institutions.

The Lipscomb University School of Music is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music. 

The School of Music collaborates with the College of Bible and Ministry to offer an interdisciplinary major in worship ministry to provide students with the knowledge and skills to assist congregations in meaningful, purposeful times of worship.

The school's applied music classes and private lessons are taught by full-time faculty, adjuncts or private instructors selected from the wealth of talent available in Nashville, including members of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and leading studio musicians.

Private lessons and ensembles are open to all university students. Performance opportunities include: A Cappella Singers, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, Opera Workshop, String Ensemble and various chamber groups. Internships in music-related fields are available.

Society of Composers, Inc.

All Lipscomb student who are composers, or interested in composing can join our chapter of SCI. Majoring or Minoring in music is not a requirement. The Society of Composers, Inc. is a professional society dedicated to the promotion, performance, understanding and dissemination of new and contemporary music. Members include composers both in and outside academia interested in addressing these concerns on a national and regional level.

ACDA

The American Choral Director Association student chapter is organized by student members and advised by faculty. The goal of the organization is to support choral music, projects, and programs within the University and in the Community. 

Student NATS

The National Association of Teachers of Singing has fostered the formation of student chapters in order to advance knowledge about the Association and the professions of teaching and singing. A Student NATS (SNATS) Chapter is an organization of students that meet, hold events and discussions, participate, practice, and learn more about performing and voice teaching as a profession.

NAfME

Lipscomb Music students planning on pursuing a career in Music Education are invited to join NAfME, formerly MENC. The National Association for Music Education offers a multitude of resources for the Music Educator.

Music Chapel

Music Chapel meets selected Thursdays at 10:55 a.m. as one of Lipscomb's "breakout chapels". Open to students from all majors, it is dedicated excusively to singing, and embraces a broad spectrum of classical, gospel, and contemporary hymns.

Music chapel is open to all students who desire to spend the worship period singing songs of praise. While some music majors and minors participate, the majority of students attending come from other academic disciplines. Music Chapel primarily has used the hymnal Songs of Faith and Praise, supplemented occasionally with hymns from other sources. Generally, the selection of songs is determined by student requests. Music Chapel is regularly led by Dr. Wilson, with student leaders providing assistance.

The mission of the Lipscomb University Music Library is to provide access to music scores and recordings in support of the classroom, studio, and performance activities of the music faculty, music majors and minors, music ensembles, and the general student population.

The Music Library is located in the School of Music, and materials are checked out in the Music Office. The checkout period is one week. All materials in the Music Library can be found by searching CATACOMB, the online catalog that serves all the Lipscomb library collections.

Music Library Collections

Compact Disc Collection

The CD collection is located in the gray-and-black cabinets, and is grouped by genre. Each CD has a call number that represents its genre (e.g. ACD-, BCD-, CCD-, etc.) and then a shelf number within that group. Click here to view an explanation of the genres.

Video Collection

The Music Library video collection is located in the locked wooden cabinets immediately to the right as you enter the room. The collection contains both VHS and DVD formats; the computer in the Music Library can play the DVDs, and you may ask for access to the VHS player in Music 120 to view VHS tapes. The videos are shelved by Library of Congress call numbers.

Scores Collection

Music scores are shelved in the Music Library, except for collections of folk, patriotic, and political songs and most hymnals (housed in the Beaman Library). The scores are shelved according to Library of Congress call numbers. Click here for a guide to LC classification of music scores as used in the Music Library.

LP Collection

A legacy collection of LPs is stored in a separate storage area, and an LP player is provided with the audio system in the Music Library for users to listen to LPs when desired. The LPs are designated by the same genres as the CDs, but with only the single letter representing the genre (e.g. A-, B-, C-, etc.). Please ask for assistance in the Music Office in retreiving and playing LPs.

Searching the Music Library

Music library materials present special challenges to librarians and library users alike, because they frequently contain multiple authors (composers) and works, and because the works themselves have many interconnected parts (e.g. an aria within an opera, or a fugue within a multi-volume collection of keyboard works).

The following PowerPoint tutorials provide an overview of the issues involved, and give tips for how to tailor search strategies for the peculiarities of music materials:

Developing Search Skills in Music: Part 1 (Pre-Search Strategies)
Developing Search Skills in Music: Part 2 (Searching)
Developing Search Skills in Music: Part 3 (Limiting Searches)

The following document is a two-page summary of the tutorials above:

Developing Search Skills in Music: Tips Sheet

The 2019 Nashville Piano Achievement Competition will be held in February 2020 in the McMeen Music Center on the campus of Lipscomb University. The honors recital will follow in Lipscomb's Ward Hall.

Registration Deadline: February 8, 2020

Teacher Registration Form
Student Registration Form
Requirements and Repertoire
Lipscomb Map
 
The Nashville Piano Achievement Competition was founded by a group of Nashville piano teachers seeking to provide an opportunity for students to perform standard repertory, chosen by level, and to be rewarded for excellence in preparation and performance. After many years of successful leadership by a board of these teachers, the Competition has been hosted by Lipscomb University's School of Music since 2011.

Lipscomb School of Music is thrilled to have Elisabeth Pridonoff as a guest artist in residence.

Elisabeth Pridonoff studied piano with Adele Marcus, Sasha Gorodnitzski, Hans Heinz, Anna Kaskas and Guido Agosti; chamber music with Leonard Rose, Ivan Galamian, Menahem Pressler; and vocal accompanying with Martin Isepp. She has been the first-place winner of national and international competitions including the Midland-Odessa, Shreveport, El Paso and Oklahoma City Symphony.

As a soloist, Pridnoff has performed with the Nashville Symphony, the Oklahoma City Symphony, the Shreveport Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber, the Boise Philharmonic, the Illinois Philharmonic, and Graz Festival. Furthermore, she has given performances and master classes all over the world. In the United States, this includes New York and Boston (Baltic Series), Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Kennedy Center, Baltimore, Toronto Town Hall, and other locations; internationally, this includes the Moscow Conservatory, Siena, Rome (by invitation from the U.S. Ambassador), Munich, London, Monterrey (Mexico) at the Sociedad Artistica Technologicao and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, and other locations in Canada, Italy, Spain, Belgium, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.