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Jennifer Bersaglia Named Lindsey Wilson College Director of Choral Activities

Somerset resident will be first director of choral activities at Lindsey Wilson University.

by Duane Bonifer

COLUMBIA, Ky. (06/10/2025) — When Jennifer Bersaglia was helping to find a director of choral activities for Lindsey Wilson College, she soon realized that she had a strong candidate for the position -- herself.

The Somerset, Kentucky, resident comes to Lindsey Wilson with an impressive resume of musical expertise and experiences, including more than two decades of teaching music.

As Lindsey Wilson director of choral activities, Bersaglia will lead the school's choral groups, including the legendary Lindsey Wilson Singers, as well as teach music courses.

"I'm thrilled to be joining the Lindsey Wilson community," said Bersaglia, who is also conductor of the Kentucky Baptist Women's Chorale, an ensemble that tours the state. "It's certainly an exciting time to be part of the transition to Lindsey WIlson University."

A heart to serve students

Bersaglia said was not looking to change career paths, but after reading the Lindsey Wilson job description she said "it did indeed feel as if the position were written for my interests and experience."

"I just felt led to apply for it because it almost read like my life," she said. "This seemed like the next turn for me."

Bersaglia said that when she met with Lindsey Wilson faculty and administrators during her interviews, "I felt such a kinship with the people I met."

"It was wonderful to see that they have the same heart to serve students that I do," she said.

Bersaglia succeeds Gerald Chafin, who directed the college's choral program for the last 28 years. She said that she and Chafin, who is Lindsey Wilson's director of church relations, have become fast friends.

"Gerald has built such a wonderful program, especially with the Lindsey Wilson Singers," said Bersaglia. "He and his wife, Sonja, have become such great friends."

Building friendships through music is what Bersaglia said that she especially enjoys about her profession, especially on a college campus.

"The work that you do with students, the relationships you build with them are so special to me," she said. "This small window of time that students have in college is so critical to their development. When you work with them, you're not just helping them become better musicians, you're helping them get from the season of childhood into the season of full-blown adulthood."

Inspired by Van Cliburn Competition

Bersaglia's career has taken several interesting professional turns. A native of Paintsville, Kentucky, she earned a bachelor's degree in music in piano performance from Morehead State University, and then a master's degree in music from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She is completing her doctorate in musical arts in piano performance at the University of Kentucky.

In addition to being involved with recording and commissioning projects, Bersaglia taught music and directed the choral activities at the University of Pikeville, served as director at the school for the arts at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and was director of the Kentucky Opry Junior Professionals at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. She owned and operated Veritas Academy, which provided students private music lessons.

Bersaglia and her husband, Scott, who has a doctorate in conducting and is music pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Somerset, have two teenage daughters: Bella and Emma.

Although Bersaglia did not grow up in a musical family, she started to play the piano when she was 5 years old. She first considered a career in music after watching the PBS broadcast of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition on Kentucky Educational Television.

"As I sat down and watched it and realized I could play a lot of the repertoire they were playing, I started thinking, 'Maybe I could do this as a career,'" she said.

Bersaglia said that she is also excited to be the first director of the Lindsey Wilson University choral program as the school will become Lindsey Wilson University on July 1.

"There is a community-building that takes place in a music program," she said. "You can come in with no background or very little skill and be part of a meaningful and rich organization that has a lot of excellence. A music program gives students an opportunity to step into something that is meaningful and fills their soul."

Lindsey Wilson College is a vibrant liberal arts college in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson -- which will become Lindsey Wilson University on July 1 -- has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students, and the college offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The college's 28 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.

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Jennifer Bersaglia has been named director of choral activities at Lindsey Wilson College, which will become Lindsey Wilson University on July 1.

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