Composer Profiles
Kate Agioritis is an Australian composer, arranger, music educator and instrumentalist. She wrote and recorded her first song at age 10 and has been writing and arranging music ever since. Today, Kate has an extensive catalogue including various solo, chamber, orchestral and band works, with her small ensemble arrangements proving popular with student and adult performers worldwide. She founded Musika Publishing Australia in 2011 and loves hearing from performers of her music from around the world.
Kate holds a Master of Music Education, as well as an Associate of Music Australia (AMusA) in Saxophone performance and has also studied Music Technology through the University of Newcastle and, most recently, Arranging through Berklee College of Music. She is a professional member of the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia (MAGA) and is currently Head of the Creative Arts Faculty at Whitsunday Anglican School in Queensland.
Kate performs in Saxophone Quartet 'Bird' and directs and performs in community ensemble 'The Bluewater Big Band'. She also enjoys playing in pit orchestras for various local musical productions.
Read Kate's interview with Sheet Music Plus here
Tracey Craig McKibben earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Pensacola Christian College in Pensacola, Florida, USA. Since graduate school, she has taught piano lessons to students of all ages to instill in them a love of music and the technical proficiency to achieve their dreams. Several of her students are now teaching music professionally.
Tracey began composing and arranging while in college, and what began as a hobby quickly developed into a lifelong passion for creating music. Tracey’s first choral octavo was accepted for publication by Lorenz in 2017 and she has had several other octavos published since then. She is also a regular contributor to Lorenz’s piano magazines, The Church Pianist and Keyboard Worship and Praise. Her work is published by Kjos, Easy Choir Music and Heart Publications, as well as being available digitally on various music websites. She is a member of ASCAP and has served in many church music leadership roles including music director, choir director for both adult and children’s choirs, pianist, accompanist, and handbell director.
Tracey lives in Dayton, Ohio, USA, with her husband and son. She also has a step-daughter and two eccentric, but lovable, cats. When not composing or teaching, she enjoys hiking with family and friends, jogging, and cycling. She is also an avid reader and knitter.
David W. Solomons (born 1953) began his musical career relatively late, taking up the violin at the ripe old age of 14 and the classical guitar a few years after that. Most of his musical expression in composition has been based on the principle of 'learning by doing', liberally seasoned with musical collaborations.
David attended Oxford University in 1972 to study French and German and also began to sing there on a regular basis. At Oxford he met lots of great musicians, many of whom had important influences on his compositional style. He moved to London where he made progress as both a composer and a church singer, and later, to Loughborough (in Leicestershire). His works include many choral and instrumental compositions and arrangements and his composing has been supported in various fruitful ways by the North-West Composers Association, music publishers DaCapo Music, Les Productions d’Oz and Musik Fabrik, and online organisations such as the Classical Music Makers, Kalvos, Damian’s Music Bazaar and the Delian Society. As a result, his compositions have been widely performed, recorded and distributed.
Over time, David’s compositional style has (of course) developed, but he has always remained true to the principle that a good memorable tune is what counts.
Lori Archer Sutherland earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Theory and Composition from Ohio State University and a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
She teaches private lessons, composes music and blogs about music appreciation at her site TonalDiversions.com
Lori plays bass clarinet with Crystal Lake Community Band and the Woodstock City Band, clarinet with Winds Off the Lake Woodwind Quintet and is the founder and organizer of the Knock on Wood Clarinet Choir, where she plays an even bigger clarinet!
David E. Harris began playing piano around age 6 and wrote his first piece for piano around age 10. He took up the trumpet at age 12 and continued his music studies, going on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree in Trumpet Performance from Furman University, where he performed one of his own compositions at his Senior Trumpet Recital.
While at Furman, David played trumpet in the Greenville Symphony Orchestra and later in the Memphis Symphony Orchestra while working on a Master of Music degree in Music Theory at the University of Memphis. David later earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the University of Memphis, with minors in trumpet and film scoring.
David moved to Nashville to take up a position as Music Director in a large Nashville church. He currently plays trumpet and keyboard at Brentwood Baptist Church, writes and arranges music and is currently honing his skills in producing Video Game Music. His collection of works includes pieces for solo instruments and piano, chamber works of various sizes as well as concert band.
Darren Lloyd is a Trumpet player, music educator and award-winning composer/arranger. He recently won Sheet Music Plus's competition for the 'most popular jazz arrangement'.
Darren has an MA in Music Performance and also holds a PGCE in Secondary Music Education. He enjoys composing & arranging pieces for Brass, Strings, Woodwind, Piano, Jazz ensemble and Concert band.
Nigel Williams was born in Wellington New Zealand in 1953 and studied music at Auckland University under Peter Godfrey, Anthony Jennings, and Douglas Mews. He completed a Master of Music degree in Composition in 1978.
Nigel’s music has been widely performed in the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia, and New Zealand. At the invitation of the Lorenz Corporation in the USA Nigel has just completed a book of fifteen organ pieces due for release in early 2020. Other recent examples of his work include a commission from Professor Marilyn Mason (University of Michigan) for a large organ piece, Chorale and Variations on ‘Slane’ published by MorningStar Music in 2010. Festive Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were commissioned in 2015 to mark the centenary of St Peter’s Cathedral Hamilton NZ. Letters From Our Boys’ a cantata for mixed voice choir and instruments, was commissioned and premiered by the Tauranga Civic Choir NZ in 2016. Nigel’s imaginative setting of Amazing Grace for SATB choir with solo trumpet playing The Last Post has been greatly admired and widely performed in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, and UK.
Nigel currently lives in Wellington but travels weekly to Tauranga, where he is the musical director of the Tauranga Civic Choir.
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Anthony Giamanco was born in Detroit, Michigan and has been a professional musician since the age of 17. He attended Eastern Michigan University, where his musical studies included voice, piano, organ, and composition. Mr. Giamanco is currently Director of Creative Arts and Worship at Shalom Lutheran Church in Pinckney, where he oversees the adult and children’s choirs, a brass quartet, and a contemporary ensemble.
His compositions appear in the catalogs of numerous publishers (GIA, Augsburg Fortress, Lorenz, Musika Publishing, Alfred, and Paraclete Press, to name a few), and includes works for choir, piano, organ, handbell, solo voice, and chamber ensembles.
Under the auspices of the University of Detroit-Mercy music and drama departments, Tony composed a score for an English adaptation of an ancient Greek tragedy, “The Libation Bearers”, which was first performed in the ruins of open-air amphitheatres throughout Greece. For five seasons he served as music director of the Dearborn Youth Theatre. He has received composition awards for his original works and arrangements, which include the vocal solo “Christmas Again”; a TTBB a cappella setting of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”; and an original setting of “The Lord’s Prayer” for voice and piano.
Mr. Giamanco resides in South Lyon, Michigan. His website is anthonygiamanco.com.
Grant Horsley was trained at the Royal College of Music London, graduating in 1982. He then went on to gain his teaching qualification (Cert Ed Fento) at Greenwich University London.
Whilst a student at the RCM he occasionally rehearsed with the Royal Ballet School and later with London Festival Ballet - hence his love for Ballet and the works he composes for it.
Grant has an active career playing all types of music from classical to contemporary both as a soloist and as an accompanist. He has worked as a session musician, an arranger, guest conductor and spent ten years as the Head of Music at Great Yarmouth College in Norfolk. Further afield, his career has involved him performing piano concertos, playing in jazz trios and quartets, playing in rock/function bands and working in various theatres in the role of musical director.
Grant plays extensively for dance schools around the country for both classical ballet and tap and has been asked by teachers to write short compositions to be used in festivals, competitions and young people’s projects. More recently his compositions have been featured in programs on BBC television and international networks.
As an independent music professional, he currently divides his time between performing, private tutoring, composing and arranging and playing for dance, and as a Member of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors, examines A-level music compositions and verifies educational music programs for schools and colleges.
John Licari - a music teacher, percussionist, music copyist, and composer - is from Upstate New York. He received his AAS in Music Business (2005) from SUNY Orange, BA in Music (2009), and his MA in Music Education (2011) both from CUNY Hunter.
After graduating in 2011, he started working as a music teacher in the New York City public school system. He currently works in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he directs a concert band, modern rock band, and assists with the choir and string orchestra. It's not uncommon for his students to be the 'guinea pigs' for one of his new compositions.
When he is not setting a score, composing, or teaching, he continues to do what he loves doing in his spare time - play the drums. For 15 years and counting, he has played drums for numerous punk rock outfits - The Black Hand, Tesla's Revenge, The Orgonauts, Cop/Out, and Punk Rock Polka Experience. He is also a percussionist for the Professional Musicians of Orange County, a collection of parade musicians who are hired to performing all over the Hudson Valley, and New Jersey.
John’s pieces have been published by HaMaR Percussion Publications, Imagine Music Publishing, Musika Publishing, and has self-published arrangements and originals on SMP Press. He also operates as a music copyist under the name Music Preparation Services (www.musicprepservices.com).
John lives in Poughkeepsie with his wife, Kerry, and daughter Lennon.
James M. Guthrie is a composer, arranger, harpsichordist, cellist, and music publisher. He holds the D.M.A., M. MUS. and B. MUS. degrees from Louisiana State University, and the Specialist & Professional Certificates in Studio Production from the Berklee College of Music.
James is a retired music professor with over 30 years of teaching experience in music theory and arranging. He is a substitute cellist with the Tar River Orchestra and has 30 years of experience as an organist/choirmaster at various churches. He is associated with ASCAP and is a member of the National Association of Composers, USA, Mid-Atlantic Chapter.
