St. Olaf Sacred Music Director To Present Northcutt Lecture

April 6, 2004

by Richard Veit

Dr. Paul Westermeyer, professor of church music at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and cantor and director of the Sacred Music program at St. Olaf College, will present the 2004 Northcutt Lecture at Baylor University at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 15, in Meadows Recital Hall.
Westermeyer will speak on "No Special Doctrinaire Schemes."
Before moving to St. Paul, Westermeyer taught for 22 years at Elmhurst College near Chicago. He has served various churches as a musician in Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Illinois. He also has been a Lutheran pastor in Illinois and Minnesota.
In 2000 Westermeyer completed his term as president of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. In 1990 he completed two terms as editor of The Hymn, and from 1991-98 was national chaplain of the American Guild of Organists.
A graduate of Elmhurst College, Lancaster Seminary and Union Seminary's School of Sacred Music, Westermeyer earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago. He is the author of many books, including The Church Musician, With Tongues of Fire, Let Justice Sing: Hymnody and Justice and Te Deum: The Church and Music.
Since its inception in 1985, The Northcutt Lecture Series has become an integral part of the academic and spiritual life of the School of Music. Designed to bring nationally and internationally known scholars in church music to Baylor, The Northcutt Lecture Series is made possible through an endowment given by LeGrande and Cassandra Northcutt of Longview.
The Northcutt Lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 710-3991.