By KAITLYN COUGHLIN

Cedarville University will host its annual Music Showcase this Friday through Sunday and welcome over 250 high school music students from around the country. Music Showcase has been a vital recruitment tool for Cedarville since 1987 and is expected to bring more students to campus in the future.

Music Showcase is intended to expose the students to the university and to provide a positive learning experience through a demanding repertoire that challenges their abilities and skills.

Dr. Lyle Anderson, director of the honors choir at Music Showcase and professor at the university, said the program has been effective at bringing students to Cedarville because it shows incoming students what to expect if they become music students at the university.

“For the past 20 years or so Music Showcase has been a viable and vital source of recruitment,” Anderson said.

Anderson said the program has grown over the past 20 years mainly because of the opening of the Dixon Ministry Center in 1996. Before the new facility was built, the Music Showcase was in various buildings across campus, according to Anderson, and he said that this “world-class facility” has drawn many more students to the program and to Cedarville in general.

Music Showcase weekend holds value for the high school students and Cedarville University’s networking strategies.

“To have young people who come here who are serious about the study of music at an early point and to get the feel of collegiate study is very valuable for them and helps us in recruitment,” Anderson said.

Former Music Showcase participant and Cedarville student Stacey Russell said Music Showcase was her first exposure to the university. She said the chance to meet with professors and other high school students who were serious about music was valuable and influential in her college decision. Russell was also able to see the integration of Christian principles within the music program, and she said being able to see how the professors interacted with their students helped her decide to come to Cedarville.

Lauren Bidwell is another Cedarville student who decided to attend Cedarville after her experience at Music Showcase. She said that spending a weekend at Cedarville showed her what the music program was like, and she said she was drawn to the friendly atmosphere and genuine people that she met during the weekend.

“I was able to see the hard-core effort and competition that is at Cedarville,” Bidwell said, “but I was also felt a real sense of camaraderie, almost like the music department was a big family.”