Fayetteville Standard

Through the generosity of the Alice L. Walton Foundation, the U of A is now the home of the Arkansas Center for Black Music, as well as the only Master of Music in Black Sacred Music degree in the United States.

Both the center and the new degree’s creation are being led by Grammy Award-winning educator Jeffrey Allen Murdock, who is also the U of A’s director of choral activities, an associate professor of music and conductor of the university’s renowned Inspirational Chorale.

“Black sacred music has influenced the lives of Black Arkansans for centuries,” Murdock said. “But historically, the performance of most music of African origin hasn’t been deemed eligible for quality academic study. I’m thrilled and so appreciative of the Alice L. Walton Foundation for helping us to amplify this and to celebrate the study of this musical tradition through the new degree and to ensure its future through the activities of the new center.”

The Arkansas Center for Black Music and the M.M. in Black Sacred Music were created with a gift of more than $848,000 from the Alice L. Walton Foundation to provide start-up costs for the center and degree, including recruiting and retaining top teaching talent and prospective students.

Murdock said the university and foundation chose this particular focus because of the U of A’s location, existing world-class resources in Black sacred music, pledge to belonging and commitment to leveraging these resources to expand access to the arts, which “is essential to building better futures in society.”

“Through both the center and degree, we aim to support students in Arkansas, and beyond, who may come to the university through untraditional paths. We want to honor their unique trajectories and ensure their capacity to thrive by improving access to graduate music programs,” said U of A Chancellor Charles Robinson.

Curtiss Smith, pastor of the Historic St. James Missionary Baptist Church near the U of A in Fayetteville, lauded the center and degree’s creation.

“Most forms of authentic American music are rooted in Black music of some kind, and Black sacred music in particular is linked to many of the social and cultural movements in Arkansas,” he said. “These initiatives are groundbreaking here in Arkansas and in the U.S., and I’m thrilled our very own Fayetteville will be at the epicenter.”

The projects are also a collaboration between the Department of Music and the African and African American Studies Program, which are both part of the U of A’s Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

“This partnership will allow us to bring together nationally recognized researchers and practitioners to create a one-of-its-kind hub for the study of a musical tradition that traces its roots back to the merging of American Christianity and the music brought to America by Black Africans of the Diaspora,” said Kathryn Sloan, interim dean of Fulbright College.

Original source can be found here.