Music

Tandy Culpepper Talks with New Grammy Member Dr. James Michael Stevens, Educator and Prolific Composer

I knew him eons ago when I was a high school English teacher and tennis coach in a Atmore, Alabama. He was on my tennis team. Flash forward, and that young teen has gone on to achieve great things. Now, Dr. James Michael Stevens is a professor of music and chair of the music department at Welch College in Gallatin, Tennessee. Stevens is also a composer and a prolific one at that. By his estimation, he has some 8,000 compositions to his credit, mainly for piano but also for organ and choral groups. The chorale composition Without Love We Have Nothing– written with Joseph M. Martin – has been performed and recorded all over the world, particularly in South Korea. Last month, Dr. Stevens was invited to join the Recording Academy as a voting member of the Grammy Awards. In this episode of The Hollywood Beat, Dr. Stevens talks with me about his career and this latest achievement with the Grammy Folks.

Without Love We Have Nothing performed by a South Korean Choral Group

Published by Tandy Culpepper

I am a veteran broadcast journalist. I was an Army brat before my father retired and moved us to the deep South. I'm talkin' Lower Alabama and Northwest Florida, I graduated from Tate High School and got botha Bachelor's degree and Master's in Teaching English from the University of West Florida, I taught English at Escambia County High School for two years before getting my m's in Speech Pathology and Audiology from Auburn University. Following graduation, I did a 180 degree turn and moved to Birmingham where I began ny broadcasting career at WBIQ, Channel 10. There I was host of a weekly primetime half-hour TV program called Alabama Lifestyles. A year later, I began a stint as a television weathercaster and public affairs host. A year later, I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida and became bureau chief at WPTV, the CBS affiliate. Two years later, I moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where I became co-host of a morng show called AM Carolina. The next year, I moved cross-country and became co-host and story producer at KTVN-TV in Reno, Nevada. I also became the medical reporter for the news department. Three years later, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky and became host and producer of a morning show called today in WAVE Country at WAVE-TV, Channel 3, the NBC affiliate. Following three years there, I moved to Los Angeles and became senior correspondent at the Turner Entertainment Reportn, an internationally-syndicated entertainment entertainment news service owned by CNN. I went back to school afterwards and got an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. Oh, yes. I won a hundred thousand dollars on the 100 Thousand Dollar Pyramid, then hosted by Dick Clark.

One thought on “Tandy Culpepper Talks with New Grammy Member Dr. James Michael Stevens, Educator and Prolific Composer

  1. Congratulations, Dr. Michael Stevens! We are so very proud of you! Just have to tell you, though, you will always be that cute, sweet little Jimbo in our hearts and mind! Your family moved away before you became an adult, so this is still how we imagine you to be. I know your family are so proud of you! Hope we can hear you play one of your compositions in person one day! God has blessed you with such wonderful talents! We love and miss you and your wonderful family. Sincerely, Dr. William and Harriet Thomas

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