The hiring process for Dr. Lester Seigel ’79’s full-time position at Birmingham-Southern felt like the hunt for a head football coach. The search committee was large and included alumni, all tasked with finding both a music faculty member and a choir director.

At the time of the search in 1992 and 1993, Seigel was an adjunct professor at the College and was already leading the choir – adding a curveball for the hiring committee in how he would proceed in the interview process, which included observed direction of the choir, without any advantages. While other candidates led the choir with the music Seigel taught them, Seigel led them in music they had learned with the legendary Dr. J. Hugh Thomas ’33 earlier that year.

Seigel got the position and has led the choir ever since – the Concert Choir and Hilltop Singers being two of the most important parts of his job. The impact of world-class musician and beloved professor Hugh Thomas did not end with Seigel’s interviews either: Seigel was later named the inaugural Hugh Thomas Professor of Music in honor of the longtime faculty member and Seigel’s own former music teacher.

“He was fiercely musical and fiercely dedicated to teaching,” Seigel says about Thomas. “He lived and breathed music. He was a composer, he was a mentor, and an inspiration to students, just by being himself.”

For more than 30 years, Seigel has taught music courses to majors and non-majors, conducted the College’s choirs and operas, and led music competitions and other performances on the Hilltop. Though he did not expect to end up teaching at his alma mater, Seigel says BSC has played an important role in his own story as a musician, including his high school lessons with Thomas.

Seigel was first introduced to the Department of Music in high school when he drove to campus every other Friday for two-hour piano lessons. He graduated high school and attended Oberlin College in Ohio before he “transferred to ’Southern for a girl,” Seigel’s now wife of more than 40 years Jane Sisson Seigel ’79.

Seigel earned his master’s degree and Doctor of Musical Arts in orchestral conducting and literature from the University of Colorado – Boulder and returned to Birmingham to serve as Temple Emanu-El’s music director and organist, a position he held for nine years before becoming a full-time faculty member at BSC.

Like Thomas – who founded the Alumni Choir and Hilltop Singers – Seigel has led the choir through challenging and inspiring music and continued its many traditions during his time in the department. Choir and his courses – like the introductory music course he teaches every year – also allow him to introduce all BSC students outside of his department to music and its importance.

“I never like to conceive music in a vacuum – the liberal arts connection and how music fits in is vital,” he says. “All of the great performers that I respect believe that. If you are insensitive to the world and music’s ability to reflect the world, you’re missing out. It’s the interior game that matters, and that’s what moves people. That’s why music endures.”

Seigel enjoys collaborating with different departments through performances and other events, most often with the Department of Theatre, and he is always impressed by the productions they create with the talent from their students. He thinks back to collaborating with Professor Emeritus Michael Flowers and the late Professor Emerita Mildred Allen during “the years we lost our minds” between 1999 and 2003 and staging several difficult productions between musical theatre and opera, including “Sweeney Todd” and “La boèhme” in the same year and “Passion” and “Company” in the surrounding years.

Seigel thinks back to Thomas often and his years at the College, and he knows Thomas would admire the growth and changes made throughout the department. He is enhancing Thomas’s legacy directly through the honored professorship and leading role in the choirs and represents the best ways music adds to a Birmingham-Southern education.

“I’d like to think that Hugh motivates the best of what I do,” Seigel says. “If you major in what you’re passionate about at a place like Birmingham-Southern, you will get the best undergraduate education.”

This story was included in a special fine and performing edition of From the Hilltop, Birmingham-Southern’s alumni email newsletter.

You can email [email protected] to get in touch with the Office of Alumni Engagement, learn about upcoming opportunities and events, and tell us more about you.