The School of Music launches with plans to expand in the near future, including a new facility

Liberty University has added a 13th school to its academic program as the Center for Worship merged with the Department of Music and Humanities on Sept. 1 to form the Liberty University School of Music.

“In an effort to better manage our resources, our faculties and our facilities, the Liberty administration found it wise to combine the two departments,” Dean of the School of Music Vernon Whaley said.

According to liberty.edu, the school will be staffed by 32 full-time and 24 adjunct faculty members and will join more than 700 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students in the new program.

The new school of music will offer a music major and a worship major with a wide range of specializations for each program at the undergraduate level. They will also be offering a new master’s program for music as well as the three worship master’s programs that are currently offered at the Center for Music and Worship, according to Whaley.

“Our goal in the future is to develop the program to become the most prestigious, largest, most influential school in the nation,” Whaley said. “We believe that God is going to allow use to do this.”

Liberty will also be building new facilities to accommodate the needs of the new school. According to Whaley, a new concert hall with the capacity to hold 1,200 to 1,300 people will be built for use by students and the Lynchburg area. Classrooms will also be built inside and around the concert hall.

In addition to providing students access to more facilities and a new building to call home, Whaley believes that the new school will open up jobs for graduates in a more significant way.

“I think as we grow and our prestige is established in the community, it would greatly increase our public relations as a school,” Whaley said. “I think we could have enormous impact on the commercial scene.”

“I would love to see Liberty graduates taking a lead role in the band of the Tonight Show and the David Letterman Show,” Whaley said.