The Dorsey and Frances Whittington Competition is named for two prominent teachers on the faculty of the Birmingham Conservatory of Music, which merged with the College in the early 1950s to form the present-day BSC Music Department. Dorsey Whittington was a longtime Director of the Conservatory,and was a world-renowned pianist and composer, who was also the founding conductor of what today has become the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. The competition is open to all BSC students currently studying applied music at the College.