Trevecca hopes new school of music attracts students

Trevecca Nazarene University is creating a new school of music that will house a number of existing programs, an administrative shift that signals a larger effort to use Nashville’s surging popularity to attract more students.

The university’s board of trustees approved the creation of the School of Music and Worship Arts earlier this month. The school will bring the music department, Center for Worship Arts and National Praise and Worship Institute under one umbrella starting Jan. 1. In a statement, Dan Boone, Trevecca’s president, said it marks the university’s “next great step forward.” Plans also are underway to add a new building for music programs in the next couple of years. Administrators hope the reorganization will provide a strengthened framework for recently added programs such as the National Praise and Worship Institute and the theory and composition track. It also will house a series of additions that are in the works. A panel of music experts, including top Nashville producer Dann Huff, is guiding the creation of a two-year songwriting certificate program. Another team is developing a similar certificate program for audio-visual technology. David Diehl, a longtime faculty member and the new school’s incoming dean, said the latest investments in Trevecca’s music programs will allow the university to capitalize on Music City’s heightened national profile. He acknowledged that Trevecca might draw students considering more established music programs at Belmont, Vanderbilt and Lipscomb universities. But he added that he hoped to attract students from across the country in addition to the region. “I do think we will compete, but that’s not necessarily the design of what we’re trying to do,” Diehl said in an interview with The Tennessean. “We’re trying to be sensitive to the marketplace,” he said. “We recognize that music can be a driver for our enrollment because of the association with Nashville.”