Bradley University has a new secretary of the music department this semester. Chrystopher Wilson was hired last September for the position.
A Peoria native, Wilson has a background in music, attending school for vocal performance and doing choir and barbershop quartet in high school. He loves how music affects people.
“I have two kids, and from the minute they came out of the womb that’s one of the first things that really you can tell that people understand and feel even before they can speak,” he said. “It’s its own language in the sense that you even have to come up with your own math, and your own way to notate it, and for people to figure it out and read it. It’s in movies, it’s in commercials, it’s in everything that we do, and not many people know how to read music, so it’s interesting in that way. I love music.”
Wilson has already made an impression on students and other Bradley staff members. David Lennie, a major head in the communications department, said he has had nothing but good dealings with him.
It can be daunting coming into a new position like this, but Lennie said that Wilson has done a really good job thus far.
“That position does a lot of different things,” he said. “Any time you are dealing with creative people, like a group of creative people, it’s sometimes like herding cats, so keeping a department like that organized and kind of on the rails is always impressive.”
Despite having a background in music, this will be Wilson’s first time taking on a job that revolves around art. Before becoming the secretary for Bradley’s music department, Wilson worked at a nursing home.
For a while, Wilson took on many different jobs. “I had a lot of cooking jobs, a lot of food service jobs,” he said, “but a lot of them were, like, manager roles, so I ended up having to get on the floor and cook something myself. But this job I heard was available and I have a background in music and I figured ‘Hey, I’d give it a shot’.”
As for long term goals, Wilson said he is most interested in bringing the music department into the 21st century.
As of now Bradley’s music center, Dingeldine, only has the capacity to accept cash and checks from visitors. “Right now I’m working on being where we accept credit cards and get a Square reader over there,” he said. “I think we’re one of the few places on campus where you have to buy with cash. That’s one of the main things right now.”
While working at Bradley, Wilson said he intends to also go back to school and balance both responsibilities at once.
With spring break coming up, Wilson is halfway through his first semester here at Bradley. It seems this is a position he is very interested in being in the long haul for.
cmwilson@fsmail.bradley.edu
dlennie@fsmail.bradley.edu