posted May 21, 2008
) Wasendorf Family |
"I pretty much loved it immediately," she said of the North Georgia School of Gospel Music, held each summer on the campus of Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Ga. She would attend the school for the next several years, and what she would experience there would affect her forever.
Mrs. Wasendorf will be an instructor at a similar school to be held this summer on the campus of Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga. The Southern Gospel Music School of America will hold its inaugural session this summer, from June 30-July 11. Similar schools are held around the country, but SGMSA is the first of its kind in Chattanooga.
"Chattanooga is such a great location for a school because of it being in the center of four other large metropolitan areas -- Nashville, Atlanta, Knoxville, Birmingham," said SGMSA Director Nelson Bailey. "It's kind of a crossroads. And Tennessee Temple is a great location with their facilities. They are excited about hosting the school."
Mr. Bailey and other founders say the school is an effort to foster a lifelong love of music in people who already have an interest.
"It's an opportunity for music students or enthusiasts to basically advance whatever skills they already have or to get some skills if they don't have them," he said. "Anybody who's got a child who has an interest in music, a school like this will jump-start them. Music is a long-term thing. You never hear anybody say 'I really wish I hadn't taken piano lessons for all those years.' Most people wish they had continued."
Mrs. Wasendorf is happy to do her part to instill that long-term musical love affair. After all, her music school background has been the foundation for much of her life.
At 16, the skills she had developed allowed her to accept the job as pianist at Turner Hill Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., a job she has to this day. Throughout high school, she accompanied choirs and other groups and played in the band.
She continued to draw on her training even after high school.
"What I had learned in the cumulative years of music school was enough that I just breezed through the first couple quarters," she said of her time as a music major at Georgia Perimeter College.
"I was only 16, but they were all really shocked at how much I knew. There was nothing we covered in the first quarter that I didn't already know."
Mrs. Wasendorf now lives in Rutledge with her husband Tommy and their two daughters, Lindsey, 12 and Leslie, 9. In addition to playing piano at Turner Hill, she leads a youth choir and teaches music courses at the church; she also teaches piano and has taught music theory at the North Georgia school she attended growing up -- all things that grew from her early musical training.
This kind of church involvement is what Mr. Bailey envisions for the SGMSA students.
"If churches could grasp how we can benefit the church, it's something churches should fund," he said. "Churches should say, 'Any kid that wants to go can go,' just like they do for youth camps. They need to understand how this could benefit their congregation. Most churches need improvement in their music."
Mrs. Wasendorf agrees. "[Music school] touched every area that I do now with music," she said.
It has even spanned a generation. Mrs. Wasendorf's daughters already are music school veterans, attending the now two-week North Georgia school each summer; and they sing frequently at church and school events.
"They love it," she said of her girls' music involvement. "We sing as a trio together -- at church, singings. We visit a good many churches, and we sing when we go. Now we actually sing all three parts. I would say that was definitely due to music school -- my girls learning how to sing harmony."
Mrs. Wasendorf says her music knowledge is not the only thing she took away from her years as a student.
"A lot of people get the idea, 'how could it be fun? So much time in class?' But we had a blast," she said. "It was just fun! Making friends and hanging out. We had activities like swimming and basketball, but that was really just a way to hang out with your friends." Friends she still has to his day.
"[There are] a few friends from high school, but I still keep up with my friends from music school. It's really a deep kind of friendship."
The Southern Gospel Music School of America in Chattanooga will have offerings for children and adults. Registration is open now. For more information, visit www.sgmsa.com.
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