Liberty University Opens New All-Steinway Music Complex
As seen in the Winter 2016 edition of the Steinway Chronicle.
LYNCHBURG, VA – Throughout the course of its 44-year history, Liberty University’s journey has been described as one of taking on giants and making the impossible possible. That faith-based pilgrimage now continues with Liberty carrying the lyre of an All-Steinway School. Pianos by Steinway & Sons grace the new Center for Music and the Worship Arts, bringing an added dimension of exuberance to the sprawling 7,000-acre campus as students began their fall semester.
The Center for Music and the Worship Arts on the campus at Liberty University.
Photo: Dave Duncan
The initial shipment of 67 instruments from the Steinway Piano Gallery of Washington D.C. arrived in July. After finishing touches on the two-building, 140,000 square foot complex in the spring, the School of Music will accommodate 124 Steinway and Steinway designed pianos. Fifty practice rooms, 40 teaching studios with piano, songwriting and music computer labs and a 1,600 seat concert hall are part of a major $500 million campus rebuilding program.
Student Jennifer Turner rehearses on a new Steinway. Photo: Ty Hester
Dr. Tad Hardin instructs student Grace Griffith in the new All-Steinway music facility. Photo: Kevin Manguiob
“Our commitment to the All-Steinway initiative is a defining moment in the life and history of the Liberty University School of Music and in the way we equip musicians for the future,” said Dean Vernon M. Whaley. “The acquisition of pianos at this level gives Liberty the opportunity to join the ranks of select institutions, evangelical or otherwise, tasked with the responsibility of training world-class pianists. Liberty can now guarantee for all students studying in the School of Music the use of world famous Steinway engineered instruments in every piano studio, teaching classroom, performance space, and practice room,” he said.
“Our commitment to the All-Steinway initiative is a defining moment in the life and history of the Liberty University School of Music and in the way we equip musicians for the future.”
In June, faculty members scrupulously chose eight grand pianos from the Steinway selection room in New York, including a 9-foot Model D concert grand that will grace the stage of the school’s performing arts center. “The decision to become an All-Steinway school demonstrates our commitment to excellence in everything we do,” Dr. Whaley said. “Our students will be learning and performing on the best pianos in the world.”
Founded in 1971 as Lynchburg Baptist College, the school became recognized as Liberty University in 1985. With approximately 14,500 students on campus joining more than 95,000 students from around the globe pursuing online studies, Liberty is the largest private, non-profit university in the nation, the largest university in Virginia and the largest Christian university in the world.
