Department of Music News

Dr. Sheila Johnson (left) and Dr. Mitzi Groom (right) will be inducted into the Department of Music Wall of Fame on April 26.

The Department of Music at WKU will induct alumna, Dr. Sheila Johnson (’77), and Professor Emerita, Dr. Mitzi Groom, to its Wall of Fame.

The Wall of Fame is the Department of Music’s way of recognizing WKU alumni and former faculty members who have distinguished themselves in their music careers. The wall is located on the third floor of the Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center.

Dr. Sheila L. Johnson received a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Arts in Counseling from WKU. During her time as a student, she studied voice under Professor Ohm Pauli and was initiated into the WKU chapters of Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Additionally, Dr. Johnson served as the director of WKU’s gospel choir, Amazing Tones of Joy. She also earned two doctorate degrees: a D.Min. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Her 30+ year career in higher education is a culmination of work experience that took place at five different colleges/universities where she held positions such as professor, department chair, and division head.

Dr. Johnson is also known as an international recording artist. “Freedom,” her original composition and one of her nine recordings, debuted at No. 9 on the USA Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart. “Freedom” also garnered the No. 1 slot for four consecutive weeks on the international radio chart in England, Nigeria, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. Dr. Johnson’s tours have captivated audiences in the United States, the West Indies, Germany, Mexico, and Italy. Several of Dr. Johnson’s compositions and arrangements have been sung by high school, university, church, and national convention choirs. She uses varying musical styles like gospel, rap, choral, anthem, folk, Negro Spiritual, and ballad in her compositions and arrangements. 

When the Afro-American Music Institute (AAMI) of Pittsburgh opened in 1983, Dr. Johnson was a member of the founding faculty and the only female on the faculty. In 2020, Dr. Johnson was unanimously elected as the first female president of the Baptist Ministers’ Conference of Pittsburgh and Vicinity.

Dr. Mitzi Groom was the chair for the Department of Music at WKU from 2001 to 2013. Previously, she was chair of the Department of Music and Art at Tennessee Technological University, where she was Associate Director of the Cumberland Children’s Chorus. Dr. Groom holds music education degrees from the University of North Alabama and Florida State University. Her previous experience includes teaching choral music in Alabama and Tennessee at all public school and church levels, directing a five-county rural/community arts education program, being artistic director for community boy choirs, and holding organist/choirmaster church positions in several states.

Her professional service to the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) includes Alabama State President, Southern Division President, National President, and Editorial Board member of The Choral Journal. From 2000 to 2009, she was a member of the ACDA National Executive Committee and was the convention chair for the February 2003 national convention in New York City. From 2006 to 2012, she served as one of the 18-member Accreditation Commissioners for the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), visiting more than twenty universities during their accreditation processes.

Dr. Groom’s work with young singers afforded her the opportunity to serve as choral adjudicator, professional accompanist/clinician, and guest conductor for numerous All-State and regional honor choruses. She was published in the specialty areas of the male changing voice, repertoire for the young singer, music education curriculum development, and music leadership in music journals, and was a monthly columnist for The Choral Journal as National ACDA President. She was selected as a distinguished alumna at both Cullman High School and the University of North Alabama, was inducted as a National Honorary Member of Delta Omicron in 2004, and received the Southern Division ACDA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. 

Her pivotal collaborative moments at WKU were hiring and retaining stellar faculty, celebrating student success, implementing the public-school strings program, redesigning the Master of Music in Music Education degree, renovating Van Meter Auditorium, planning and building the Music Rehearsal Hall, and being the university carillonneur for graduations and holidays.

The 2023-2024 Wall of Fame presentation will be held on Friday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Van Meter Hall. It will precede the Choral Masterwork Concert, which features WKU Orchestra and Choral ensembles. Tickets can be purchased at wku.showare.com.

To learn more about the Department of Music Wall of Fame, please visit https://www.wku.edu/music/walloffame/index.php.