Southwestern Music Academy continues serving children, community after 20 years

For 20 years, the Southwestern Music Academy has provided a variety of music lessons and performances to children and others of the Southwestern and surrounding community, while also giving teaching opportunities to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary students.

Before the creation of the SMA, Jill Sprenger, Southwestern professor for applied graduate and pedagogy students, said the seminary had a children’s piano lab, but it was loosely structured with no continuity as student teachers and their students came and went.

“I saw a need,” Sprenger said, saying the master’s and doctoral students were required to take a semester of pedagogy, and then spend one semester teaching. “And it, I realized as a professor, wasn’t enough time to teach them how to teach.”

With that need in mind, Sprenger started the Southwestern Music Academy in 2004, saying it became a place she could mentor the teachers beyond their degree requirements while also providing excellent music instruction to children and others. The academy is a formal, fully accredited school recognized by the National Association of Schools of Music.

“It was beneficial for the community and beneficial for the students,” current SMA Director Donna Hopson said of the academy’s beginning 20 years ago.

Hopson herself was an instructor for the academy as a pedagogy major beginning in 2015, and she said the skills she gained were invaluable.

“It was great,” Hopson said of her time as an instructor, prior to becoming the director in 2020. “I loved being able to learn under Dr. Sprenger and her expertise of teaching, how to have my own studio, and how to prepare students.”

The SMA continues to only hire instructors from Southwestern Seminary, though it is now open to seminary students pursuing degrees outside the music school. Hopson said they are constantly accepting resumes as they rotate through instructors due to those student instructors graduating or moving on.

“That’s really important to me, that we only hire from within so we’re all SWBTS family,” Hopson said. “… It’s excellent training opportunity.”

Sprenger also said it is a good opportunity for international students, who can only be employed on campus, and other students looking for income in their field of study.

While it started with only four instructors, the academy now has 23 instructors, providing private lessons to children and adults of Southwestern and the community in voice, piano, guitar, drums, and a variety of string instruments. As members of the Fort Worth Music Teachers’ Association, SMA students can also take part in solo competitions and state theory tests.

“Over the years, there have been hundreds of students that have been reached through the academy in the community, and it’s been a wonderful outreach,” Sprenger said, saying that outreach was a key point of their mission statement at the founding of the academy.

A highlight this year is the children’s choir, which will meet weekly at no cost as they prepare for concerts later in the year, including singing with the adult choir during the School of Church Music and Worship’s Prelude to Christmas program. Children in kindergarten through fifth grade can register for the choir.

Hopson said she hopes to see about 40 children registered for the choir, noting it’s an opportunity for those churches without children or adult choirs. As the SMA choir grows and she builds contacts in the community, Hopson said her goal is for the choir to become a further opportunity of outreach, performing off-campus at nursing homes and other venues.

While providing lessons and training, Hopson said they also encourage interaction amongst the students, hosting worship nights led by the students and a monthly group class when students can practice pieces for each other and not just one-on-one with their instructor.

During the past few years, Hopson said they have directed their focus to worship songs and hymns that can be used in church settings. Already, she said she has heard from a church plant that is sending some of their youth to participate in lessons so they can serve their church in leading worship.

“It’s been good for the music school, for the opportunity to get to teach … but it’s also beneficial, because for the Southwestern families, the tuition is very affordable,” Hopson said. “… And it’s also a good environment for them.”

While she is no longer directly involved with SMA, Sprenger said she is pleased to see the academy continuing to run as she had envisioned it those 20 years ago, currently serving about 150 students a semester.

“It is fulfilling its purpose,” Sprenger said. “It is a community outreach.”

On Aug. 15, 5-7 p.m., the SMA will host a meet and greet event in room C200 of Cowden Hall, allowing new and returning students the opportunity to visit with their instructors and participate in other fun activities. Event details can be found here. Those interested in music lessons or the children’s choir can find more information and register here.