Clayton College & State University's acclaimed Music Department is entering the 2000-2001 academic year on a mixed note.

While department head John Schuster-Craig, Ph.D., and his colleagues are welcoming the official opening of the new music building and the addition of specialized new equipment, they are also bidding farewell to one of their distinguished members and performers, Lyle Nordstrom, Ph.D., who has taken a position with the School of Music at the University of North Texas.

Although the Music Department has already moved its offices and labs into the music building, the $4 million facility will be open for classes for the first time this fall. Equipping the new facility has been a major undertaking, with a budget of almost $500,000, says Schuster-Craig. New equipment is currently being purchased and installed in the computer, vocal pedagogy and electronic music labs, with the goal of having everything in place by the start of classes Aug. 21.

Included in the Music Department's purchases will be the vocal pedagogy laboratory and the electronic music studio, plus a recording studio. Also on Schuster-Craig's shopping list are 13 grand pianos, risers for the choral rehearsal room and possibly new listening equipment and a baritone saxophone.

Although Nordstrom is leaving Clayton State after eight years, he will continue as the director of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, and will play with the orchestra in Spivey Hall in September 2000 and January 2001. He also will direct a baroque orchestra at North Texas as well as the University's early music activities.

Approximately 10 percent of Clayton State's student body comes from Fayette County.

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