Music, Department of

As executive director of the Life Enrichment Center (LEC) in Milledgeville, Barbara Coleman has a simple––yet far-reaching––goal. To change the world one student at a time. To do this, she created a partnership with Georgia College called Creative Expressions. Every week, this program brings adults with disabilities together with music therapy students. Bringing adults with disabilities together with students accentuates the center’s motto that “we are more alike than different.” It...

For nearly three decades, David White, ’89, shaped boys into responsible men through song. His candor and passion for encouraging others to love music has turned boys into better students, employees and fathers. David’s the founder, artistic director and conductor of the Georgia Boy Choir, which is in its 13th season. As director, he oversees the organization’s artistic direction. As the conductor, he facilitates that mission. “It's the connection I'm able to make with the boys, who...

It is perfect harmony. The song of an experienced professional passing what he knows to undergraduate students who, in turn, pass their new skills on to others. Together, they use music to calm, soothe and entertain the elderly at Carlyle Place in Macon, helping them recollect forgotten words and memories. Each student benefits from a mentor’s experience but also from the knowledge passed down from other interns. This provides invaluable opportunity to learn from someone else’s perspective,...

Ludwig van Beethoven believed “music can change the world.” Two Georgia College students are taking that to heart, lifting the spirits of elderly residents in Milledgeville one song at a time. “I believe music has the power to open real connection between humans, and I want to use music as a tool to heal,” said graduate student Matthew Seymour of Augusta, who’s getting his master’s in music therapy. “I feel a sense of gratitude to be able to bring some enjoyment to the residents. I...

Amanda Brennen Hometown: Roswell, GA.   What made you choose Georgia College? There are only two music therapy programs in Georgia, and I felt most excited after visiting Georgia College. I loved the campus, the faculty I met was so inviting and I was excited about the possible leadership opportunities I would have.   What made you want to study music therapy? My sophomore year at Roswell High, my literature teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. At the time, I told her...

Picking the right presidential candidate can be tricky in the best of times. Just in time for early voting this month, however, comes something everyone can get behind: music. Georgia College’s updated and improved Trax on the Trail website is a serious study of the science of music and political strategy. Songs on the campaign trail often evoke nostalgia, even lightheartedness. They boost a candidate or poke fun, halt indecisiveness and influence voters. Music can also bring people...

As students were staying home and juggling last-minute coursework online last spring, senior music education major William Refuss of Fayetteville, Georgia, went a little further. He signed up to help test others for COVID-19.  Refuss joined Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), a nonprofit providing free coronavirus testing in the greater Atlanta area. Donned in full PPE—personal protection equipment—he helped test thousands of people in Alpharetta—which has the highest volume...

It’s difficult to play band music without a band. But, apparently, not impossible. As COVID-19 made the world less busy and more solitary—abruptly silencing many things, like two live Jazz Band concerts and the university’s spring musical bonanza, Music at the Mansion—Band Director Clifford Towner quickly decided his students would record their instruments solo on cell phones, laptops or tablets. Each slice of music would then be digitally blended for full-sounding compositions. “The...

Some things are simply meant to go together—like salt and pepper, pencil and paper, lock and key. In July, after 23 years in the health sciences, Georgia College’s music therapy program will return to the music department. “All the various dominoes that were needed for this unification to happen were starting to fall, in regard to supporting reconnection between the two areas,” said Dr. Don Parker, chair of music. “By having both programs together, we avoid a lot of redundancy.” Studies...