Music Program Director, Professor of Music
While Dr. Rod Lewis’ primary musical outlet is guitar, his interests and musical activities are more broad. He has worked as a studio guitarist and session musician in many different styles of music, and has given solo classical guitar performances throughout North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Dr. Rod has been featured on South Carolina Educational Radio on the program Hanging on to My Baton with Nicholas Smith. He has performed on the Fretworks Series at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina.
As a composer, Dr. Rod has contributed choral service music for the Anglican liturgy, as well as choral settings of Psalms, and poetry by George Herbert and Gerard Manley Hopkins. He served as music director and coordinator for the Anglican Church in North America’s first Triennial Gathering.
In addition to serving as Professor of Music at Columbia International University where he has served since 1990, Dr. Rod serves as Music Director and Parish Musician at Church of the Apostles, Columbia, SC.
Dr. Rod believes that as a Christian he is called to use his music in three ways: to worship, to reach non-believers with the Gospel and to encourage other believers. The desire to participate in all these areas has led him to simultaneously explore diverse musical paths. Dr. Rod recognizes that the art of learning, creating, and making music is a parable for life, and specifically, the Christian life. He finds it difficult to separate music and art from any aspect of life; and therefore, it is an expression of his relationship with Christ, a tool for evangelism, and an offering back to the Giver. As a teacher, his desire is to help students discover that music can be effective in all these areas, and that there need not be a dichotomy between the Christian and secular aspects of life, or between calling and vocation.
Dr. Rod lives with his wife, Allison in Columbia.
Education
- DMA, Guitar Performance, University of South Carolina
- MM, Guitar Performance, University of South Carolina
- BA, Music Education, Alderson Broaddus University
Selected Recorded Discography
- Eight Maids Dancing (solo guitar)
- The Second Mile (solo guitar)
- A Walking Shadow (solo guitar)
- Habby Was Here (blues/rock with band, Grace Monkey)
- The Ballad of Alice Eddy (country/blues covers of 19th century gospel songs)
- Songs of Hope (worship music)
- Memento Mori (alternative folk – original songs)