Lipscomb has brought on a number of changes this year, ranging from new academic department locations to a new outdoor patio outside the cafeteria.
Additionally, several new faculty members have joined the Lipscomb staff.
One of these new professors is Dr. Ben Blasko, who was recently named band director for the classical music department.
Blasko was a music education major at a small college in his home state of Pennsylvania. He then completed his graduate coursework at the University of North Texas and eventually became director of bands at the University of Dubuque, before moving to Lipscomb this fall.
In addition to his role at Lipscomb, he’s also a professional trumpet player and has done film work, notably studying with Bruce Broughton, who has worked on films such as Silverado.
“I came [to Lipscomb] because I was looking for a place where I could practice my faith and integrate it into my teaching,” Blasko said. “When I interviewed here, what really drew me [in] were the students and how the faculty interacted with the students. I very much got a sense of [the] mentor relationships between faculty and students.”
Blasko said he is honored to work with a “legend in music” in Brown Bannister, Lipscomb’s Director of Music.
Students in the classical department have also welcomed Blasko’s arrival, citing their readiness for new and specialized attention.
The music department not only hosts the classical music side, but it also has the commercial music emphasis (previously titled contemporary music). Since the commercial program was started in 2015, some classical students said that they felt that a lot of attention was placed on the commercial music program, both by Lipscomb’s music department and by the Office of Admissions.
“I never felt like, ‘Oh, this person’s a contemporary music major, I can’t be friends with them,'” classical music major Sarah Baxley said. “I never had that feeling…It was mostly just, maybe a little bit of envy that the commercial program was growing so much, and we were dwindling — our numbers were dwindling. It wasn’t as much of a personal issue. It was just sort of we were wanting the same growth that they were having.”
Blasko said that a lot of attention had to be devoted to the new program initially, as is the case with any new venture. But he thinks Lipscomb has the “best music faculty and students in the city,” so one of his goals is to focus on integrating the two programs by creating various events and projects together.
“Now [that] the attention is better [on both sides], how can we integrate these two things more? How can we make everybody better?” Blasko said. “It’s my goal to kind of assess what is here, and where everyone’s strengths are, and let’s do more things together.”
Blasko noted that one of these integrated projects has already been scheduled.
“[One of] the projects that we’re doing for our first concert coming up in October [is] an electric guitar concerto,” Blasko said. “It’s going to feature a bassist and a guitar player, Ben VanMaarth and Piper Smith, playing with the wind ensemble. And it’s a rock piece. It’s pretty awesome.”