Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana: Music for All

Rooted in faith, Baylor University’s School of Music demonstrates a commitment to uniting service and music to transform lives and to show that the power, majesty and joy of music are for everyone.

The School of Music performs more than 350 concerts each year, offering beautiful music for enjoyment and enlightenment. This in itself is an incredible service to the community, as the majority of the performances are free. However, the School is committed to blending music and service to impact Waco, Central Texas and the world.

For the Smallest Ears

An unbroken tradition since 1946, the annual Children’s Concert brings together 6,000 fourth- and fifth-grade students from Waco and surrounding communities to Waco Hall and introduces them to the art of music.

"The most important aspects of creating a lifelong music lover is early access to good music and experiencing some kind of spark from the experience," said Stephen Heyde, the Mary Franks Thompson Professor of Orchestral Studies and director of orchestral activities. "It can lead to awakening of an emotional life in even these young students, which is really important in an increasingly isolated technological existence."

It takes a village to ensure the Concert runs smoothly each year. The Children’s Concert performers include the Baylor Symphony and, usually, high-school-age dancers from Joy’s School of Dance in Waco. Ann Harder of News Channel 25 narrates the Concert. A committee of Waco ISD music teachers prepare materials to be discussed in the classroom prior to the Concert, and the Waco Symphony Council and the Baylor University Police Department also help to coordinate and execute this massive event.

"Coming to campus and Waco Hall is the first glimpse of a wider world and all the opportunities that world has to offer for many of these children," Heyde said. "Suddenly they see things that we take for granted but that they have never experienced — people working together to make something wonderful happen, buildings far bigger and grander than anything they could have imagined and a university that exists to encourage and facilitate their dreams to live their lives fully using their unique gifts."

For Unique Learners

On Monday evenings, children with special needs between the ages of four and 18 gather with a group of Baylor University music majors to learn about music. Oso Musical was founded in the fall of 2012 and resembles an elementary general music class, engaging students in a wide variety of activities that follow a customized curriculum, adapted to accommodate each of the participants.

"Oso provides a safe space for unique learners to explore their musical interests and to feel as uninhibited in their participation as possible," said Jill Gusukuma, administrative associate with the Baylor School of Music and program director for Oso Musical. "It is a judgment free zone, and Oso Buddies [the participants] really begin to grow in their confidence, develop motor and cooperative skills and feel a sense of belonging among similar peers and really devoted college student role models."

Oso Buddies participate in singing, dancing, playing instruments, basic music notation and a myriad of other developmental activities. However, they are not the only ones who benefit from the program. The Baylor student volunteers join Oso Musical for a variety of reasons — personal investment in children with special needs, desire for teaching experience, wanting to learn more about inclusion — but they all share in a similar experience of personal growth.

"Many of these students are music education majors who are getting a great opportunity for real teaching and mentoring," Gusukuma said. "I think many of them are surprised at their own growth, both as teachers and in their perspective of the special needs community. It’s really rewarding for them."

For Young Voices

In 2013, School of Music faculty members Lynne Gackle, professor of ensembles, Mary Gibbs Jones Chair in Music and director of choral activities; and Florence Scattergood, adjunct instructor and veteran choral educator, founded the Youth Chorus of Central Texas (YCCT) as an opportunity to promote music literacy and excellence in vocal artistry through the preparation and performance of choral singing.

"Children from throughout Central Texas have the opportunity to study choral music with a truly outstanding, experienced faculty," Gackle said. "The demographics of the choir include public, private, parochial and homeschool students. Scholarships are available, and it is the philosophy of YCCT that no ‘deserving, talented’ student be turned away due to financial reasons."

Baylor faculty members, recent alumni and current music education students volunteer with YCCT, creating a mutually beneficial educational environment for both the college students and the eight- to 18-year-old choir members.

"Opportunities for mentoring and for continuing education are elemental to the organization," Gackle said.

For many of these young students, no choir is available to them, and YCCT provides a chance for them to sing with others. It also gives them the opportunity to serve their community through song. YCCT has performed at the Holocaust Remembrance Service, Community Thanksgiving Service, Waco Cultural Arts Fest and other community events.

Music Around the World

The School of Music is an active participant in Baylor Missions, sending two groups of students on international trips this past year. Randall Bradley, professor of church music, director of the Center for Christian Music Studies and the Ben H. Williams Professor of Music, led the Baylor Men’s Choir on a mission trip to Kenya, and Alex Parker, senior lecturer in jazz studies and director of the Baylor Jazz Program, led the Baylor Jazz Ensemble to Greece.

During the trip to Kenya, the Men’s Choir sang in churches, schools and wherever they found a group of people gathered. They also helped to refurbish a school, organized and served over 400 people in a medical clinic and met the needs of many in the communities they visited by providing necessities like shoes.

"This was the most meaningful trip that I have ever experienced with students. The guys served the people of Kenya sacrificially even when they were exhausted, hot and hungry," Bradley said. "They connected deeply with people everywhere we went and always had enough energy to sing and interact with yet another group of people who were eager to hear us sing."

In Greece, the Jazz Ensemble performed at eight different venues — a Christian teen camp, a church service, a church cultural night, a Syrian refugee camp, an Iranian refugee family camp and three town squares where the church that sponsored the trip is setting up site churches.

Parker recalled one of many special memories from the trip: "I was talking to three gentlemen from Damascus and one spoke English. He thanked me and all three shook my hand, and he said, ‘Thank you, thank you for coming here and playing for us. You brought us joy. Sometimes we go weeks or months without joy, and today, you brought us joy. Did you see the looks of the faces of these people?’ I replied, ‘Did you see the looks on the faces of my band? Tonight, we also had joy!’"