“I never, in my life, thought I would say that I would fall in love with a small country town,” new Union band director, percussionist, and former Chicago resident David J. Culp said.
Before settling in Jackson, Culp was born in Michigan but spent a big portion of his childhood in Chicago, Illinois. This is where he fell in love with city life.
“I light up when I’m in a city. I’m at home,” Culp said. “I can work the traffic; I know how to talk to people; I know who to look at; I know who not to look at.”
From “the windy city”, Culp ventured to West Kentucky, where he received his undergraduate degree and master’s in music education from Murry State University. During this time, Culp went back and forth between pursuing a teaching position or being a full-time musician; however, playing was his true passion. Ironically, a position opened up for him to be a middle school director, and he took it.
“I actually took the job to show God, ‘okay, we’ll try it, and I’m gonna show you that this is the reason I don’t need to do this’, and that might sort of give me His blessing, like I finally did it, now lets go on and do what I want to do, and I fell in love with [teaching], absolutely fell in love with it,” Culp said.
Soon after getting into this position, Culp pursued his doctorate in music education at the University of Mississippi and went on to teach at Bethel University for six years. He knew that Bethel was temporary as his time there eventually came to an end when his wife, Shera, accepted a position as a Speech Language Pathologist at South Gibson Middle School in Milan.
Culp expressed his love for the city of Milan and proceeded to share that he would, when in Jackson, purposefully drive behind Union’s campus and share with his wife, “Wouldn’t it just be awesome if I worked there?”.
In the spring semester of 2022, Culp applied for the open position as new director and was accepted. He is now about halfway through his first semester at Union University, and he expressed to me that he has enjoyed it so far.
Sophomore flute player and graphic design major, Emily Gray, shared with me that she is really enjoying the current semester with Culp.
“Honestly, it’s been a really good start to the year,” Gray said. “He’s always so encouraging and enthusiastic and positive about everything that we’re doing.”
Gray also noted how Culp is encouraging the band to attend musical performances outside of class, including the Jackson symphony, which Culp is a current member of.
As Culp has settled into his new position, he shared with me that it has been exciting because of the staff he gets the opportunity to work beside and the students he gets to teach. He also expressed his belief that his time here is “God ordained” and this brings him much excitement as he comes into work.
“And understand that one of the things that excites me is that even though the bulk of [the symphonic band] are not music majors, [they] have the attitudes like music majors,” Culp said. “That’s all I need.”
Culp desires for the symphonic band to be a place of musical excellence, joy and fun. He hopes to spread his excitement to all the members when it comes to playing the music and hearing musical components in a unique way.
“I love the ability that God has given humanity to create music,” Culp said. “Because it stimulates, and I don’t want to sound brainy, but it stimulates our brain and our emotion all at the exact same time in a way that no other subject matter or form of art could ever do.”