The Master’s Touch – SA/SSA/SSAA

Michael Cox’s setting of The Master’s Touch is inspiring and uplifting, written for women’s voices with keyboard, medium adult difficulty.
About Dr. Michael Cox

The career of Dr. Michael Cox is measured not only by the music he has written, but also by the traditions, ensembles, and musicians his work has helped shape. An ASCAP award-winning composer, conductor, pianist, and educator, Dr. Cox has moved throughout his professional life between the composer’s desk, the classroom, the rehearsal hall, and the sanctuary. He currently serves as Composer-in-Residence at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Oklahoma Baptist University occupies a particularly important place in his story. Dr. Cox graduated from OBU in 1970 with honors in piano performance and returned to join its music faculty in 1972. There, he taught composition, conducting, music theory, and church music while becoming deeply involved in the university’s performing life.

From 1974 until 1990, Dr. Cox served as the second director of the Bison Glee Club, succeeding the ensemble’s founder, Warren M. Angell. Founded in 1938, the auditioned men’s chorus became known for performances and tours across the United States and in Canada, Europe, and the Far East. Under Dr. Cox’s leadership, the ensemble continued developing the blend of musical excellence, fellowship, and service that has distinguished it for generations.

Dr. Cox’s connection to the Bison Glee Club did not end when he left Oklahoma. He composed “Praise Him!” for the ensemble’s 50th anniversary, and decades later wrote “If God Is for Us” for its 75th-anniversary celebration. Both works became part of milestone concerts that connected current singers with alumni and former conductors. His legacy at OBU is also recognized through the Michael T. Cox Bison Glee Club Scholarship, awarded to a music major who sings in the ensemble.

The university later welcomed his music back to campus on a larger scale. In 2004, OBU presented Symphonic Psalms, Dr. Cox’s eight-movement work for chorus and orchestra, as its annual Oratorio Project. Drawing upon eight psalms, the composition ranges from stately, hymn-like writing to energetic syncopation. It was commissioned by Scott Oyer, a former Cox student and Bison Glee Club member, making the project a fitting reunion of teacher, student, composer, and university.

In 1990, Dr. Cox moved to Fort Worth to join Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary as Professor of Music Theory and Composition. He remained there for 19 years, teaching students to understand the structure and craft of music while continuing his own work as a composer and conductor. He also directed the Southwestern Seminary Men’s Chorus and the Southwestern Singers before retiring from the faculty in 2009.

Fort Worth became more than the setting for the second half of Dr. Cox’s academic career. It also provided a community in which his work as a church musician, conductor, and composer could continue to develop. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the Fort Worth Civic Orchestra and the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving and has conducted the Fort Worth Choral Society. In a 2015 Broadway Series performance, the Choral Society presented his composition Life alongside music by Johannes Brahms and Randall Stroope.

His large-scale sacred writing includes Deo Gratias, a five-movement work for eight-part choir, vocal soloists, and full orchestra. The approximately 20-minute composition was commissioned for David Keith, the Southwestern Seminary Oratorio Chorus, and the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, using texts from the Gloria, Psalm 93, and Wesley Forbis.

Dr. Cox’s contributions to American music have also received recognition beyond the institutions he has served. He began receiving the ASCAP Standard Award in 1987, and in 1995 he was selected as the commissioned composer of the Texas Music Teachers Association. His name appears in a distinguished line of commissioned composers that includes Donald Grantham, Fisher Tull, Simon Sargon, and Mary Jeanne van Appledorn.

His education prepared him for the unusual breadth of his career. In addition to his piano performance degree from Oklahoma Baptist University, Dr. Cox earned a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Doctor of Music in composition from Florida State University. He has also worked as a professional music copyist and engraver, bringing precision and care to the preparation of musical scores.

Across the decades, Dr. Cox’s music has repeatedly returned to the communities that helped inspire it—sung at anniversary concerts, performed by former students, presented by church and community ensembles, and passed to new generations of musicians. That continuing life may be one of the clearest measures of his influence as a composer, teacher, and conductor.