October 23, 2020
Wheaton College welcomes Dontè A. Ford, who is serving the College as an Assistant Professor of Music and Associate Chaplain for Worship Arts.
Name: Dontè A. Ford
Education:
Bachelor of Arts in Music, Tuba, Penn State University
Master of Sacred Music, Choral Conducting; Master of Music, Choral Conducting; and Master of Divinity, Southern Methodist University
Ph.D. (forthcoming); Musicology, University of Arizona
1. What was your favorite class in college? Why?
Black Religion (undergraduate) and African-American Perspectives in the Bible (graduate). These classes were my favorite because they added historical context to what I lived and understood as a Black Christian, attending and serving the Black Church.
2. Before Wheaton, what were you doing?
Serving churches as Music Minister and Associate Minister, teaching private music lessons, conducting a community chorus, and completing coursework toward my Ph.D. in Musicology at the University of Arizona.
3. What big question are you trying to answer through your work?
How do Christian worship gatherings, particularly weekly, Sunday meetings, engage with meaningful music, that convicts, encourages, and sustains individuals through all stages and phases of life?
4. What has kept you busy during the pandemic?
Adjusting to Wheaton, the town, and the College.
5. Do you get butterflies the night before the first day of school?
To be honest, no.
6. What would you have liked to tell the freshman version of yourself about going to college?
Time for reading for an assignment and doing the assignment is not the same thing.
7. When you’re not teaching or researching, what do you like to do?
Compose music, catch-up with my best friends, and watch the History and American Heroes channels.