"Praise the Lord with harp: Sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto Him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise." Psalm 33:1-3
Music is an integral part of the education at Westminster Academy. Our program consists of music appreciation, theory, history and the training of choral singing. As with other subjects, music is seen from a Classical and Christian perspective. This means we believe there are transcendent norms to which we can appeal to give us the ability to evaluate what good music is and to understand what it is to create good music. Music should nourish the soul and call us to something greater than ourselves. In today’s culture, often when students are asked why something is “good” the response is most commonly, “Because I like it.” This answer, undefended from an appeal to something other than oneself, leaves beauty and worth to anyone’s interpretation and opinion. Westminster Academy believes that beauty is NOT relative and that we can equip students to see, hear and defend what is good, true, virtuous and beautiful, and this includes music.
Kindergarten and 1st Grade have music once a week, and our 2nd through 6th Grades have music twice a week. The students study the history of music in connection with the era of history they are studying in their classrooms. Musical style, form, theory and singing are the elements covered in music classes. Our Upper School music program consists of a music theory class where the masters are studied, the history of music is taught and the concepts of proportion, ratio, math and physics explored. Ultimately, as stated in our definition of Classical Christian education, the goal is to train the souls of students to love that which is worth loving. As in all subjects, this requires equipping students with the reasoning and rhetorical skills to discern, on their own, what beautiful music is and to determine God’s intent for its profitable use. In addition to formal education in music, singing is a high priority at Westminster Academy. We desire to praise our Heavenly Father through our voices using the great hymns of our faith. Therefore, we have selected a hymn for each month. Students and faculty sing these hymns in our weekly assemblies.
In addition, the Helen Richardson Performing Arts series is a fully funded program to bring the finest examples of the highest caliber musical performances to our students. These include musicians and performers from the Memphis Symphony, University of Memphis School of Music, The Visible School, Opera Memphis and many other highly regarded institutions. There are also opportunities for students to audition for our nationally recognized Select Choirs (see Student Life).