Dr. Doug Thomson, Director of Music and Worship Studies at Heritage College & Seminary, says that today’s churches are becoming more and more advanced in the technology they use in their worship related ministries. From live sound enhancement, to production, audio engineering, and song writing software, there is a growing need for trained personnel to help the churches operate technically and professionally. He goes on to say that the college often hears from church leaders about.
It’s for this reason that Dr. Thomson says that Heritage has recently created the new Audio Engineering & Production Certificate beginning in the Fall Semester of 2020.
“We created this new certificate to meet those challenges by training young adults, not only in their faith, but also in worship and church related technology,” explains Dr. Thomson. “These new courses will be taught by trained, experience professionals in relatively small class sizes, where students will get plenty of individual attention.”
This one-year, college certificate is geared to training and equipping the student who is interested in serving in the recording studio, and who is interested specifically in the fields of production and worship service technology. While learning in the studio, the Audio Engineering Certificate will also allow students the time to grow in their faith as they study God’s Word while learning their craft at Heritage. To learn the intricacies and details related to audio engineering, students will get the opportunity to work in a multi-room, state-of-the-art, digital audio workstation-based studio.
“The classes are small and workstation-based – there is so much cross-pollination, collaboration, and peer review which helps everyone learn to critique and listen, create and thrive,” says Dave Thompson, one of the adjunct tech professors. “The skills the student learns should be at a fundamental, conceptional, and practical level that can be built upon by further experience, experimentation, and journeying deeper into the modern musical landscape.”
Matt Collins, a staff member at Heritage, and a graduate of the Bachelor of Church Music program with an emphasis on sound technology and recording arts, knows firsthand the impact Heritage has on students in their abilities and faith. Collins says that his time at Heritage has had a lasting and rippling effect on his personal faith and musical aspirations.
“I not only learned how to professionally record, mix, and master audio, but I also learned the fundamental beliefs I hold in the faith and how to adequately articulate, define, and defend those beliefs in our world today,” says Collins. “Without the program that Heritage provided, and by the grace of God, I wouldn’t be the producer and musician that I am today; but, more importantly, I wouldn’t have the faith I have today.”
For more information on the new, one-year, Audio Engineering & Production Certificate program at Heritage, please visit DiscoverHeritage.ca/academics.
To apply to the program, visit DiscoverHeritage.ca/apply.
