By Bob Allen
Maurice Hinson, one of America’s most respected authorities on piano literature who taught at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1957 until 2015, died Nov. 11 at age 84 after a battle with cancer.
As professor and senior professor of piano at the seminary’s School of Church Music, which closed in 2009 due to changing worship styles, Hinson taught and nurtured many pianists who now hold distinguished positions in churches and universities throughout the world.
He summarized the music school’s philosophy as one in which “a church musician must first be a fine musician — then courses in church music are added to a solid musical foundation” and said he taught great piano literature at Southern “just like I taught it at the University of Michigan or any other fine school.”
Along with being the longest-serving faculty member in the seminary’s history, Hinson was a widely published author with 14 books. His reference work, Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire, is a standard among serious piano teachers and students the world over.
He was a senior editor for The Alfred Publishing Company of California. He edited more than 300 editions of classical piano music and recorded five DVDs of piano music.
Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Convention-owned seminary in Louisville, Ky., described Hinson as “one of the greatest musicologists ever to serve among Southern Baptists.”
“He was a wonderful Christian gentleman who combined his love for students with his love for music, having a very rare gift both as a pianist and as one of the great scholars of the piano as an instrument,” Mohler said. “He will be greatly missed.”
Adam Greenway, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry, said Hinson’s passing “marks the close of an unprecedented teaching ministry in the area of church music and worship at Southern Seminary.”
A member of Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., Hinson received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Florida and his master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from the University of Michigan. He also studied at Sherwood Music School in Chicago, the Julliard School in New York and the Conservatoire National in Nancy, France.
Hinson received many awards in piano pedagogy and performance, including the Liszt Commemorative Medal by the Hungarian government and the Medal of Excellence by the American Liszt Society for his research on the music of Franz Liszt.
He was recognized as a specialist in American piano music, giving recitals lectures and teaching master classes on five continents and in all 50 states. Some of his articles appear in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, considered the most comprehensive history of America’s musical heritage.
Hinson is survived by his wife of 64 years, Margaret Hinson, whom he first met at age 5 in kindergarten; one daughter and four grandchildren. Another daughter preceded him in death.
His funeral service is scheduled for noon, Monday, Nov. 16, at Broadway Baptist Church, 4000 Brownsboro Road in Louisville, Ky., with private burial to follow in Cave Hill Cemetery. Visitation is 1-4 p.m. Sunday at Pearson’s Funeral Home, 149 Breckenridge Lane.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Broadway Baptist Church.