His musical experiences range from church musician to theme park entertainer. He has performed musical styles from rock to classical to bluegrass.

He currently has over two hundred anthems in print. In addition to Shawnee Press has released a CD of his choral work entitled The Music of Pepper Choplin – Composer Merit Signature Series. Another Shawnee release is Psalms of the Wood, a CD of his choral music, accompanied by folk instruments and keyboards.

Pepper leads events throughout the country as composer, clinician, conductor and entertainer. Audiences respond with laughter and with tears as he conducts and sings his unique mix of inspirational and humorous music in churches and conferences.

Pepper has several CDs to his credit including his self produced, Pepper Is My Real Name, which features his humorous songs. His recording, Hold On, is a solo album of his most popular inspirational songs.

Much of Pepper’s creative energy goes into planning creative and vibrant worship for Greystone Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC where he is Minister of Music. Many of his anthems are born out of a need at his own church. Pepper’s chief desire is “to create music that will lead people to worship in a dramatic way.”

E-Mail:music@pepperchoplin.com

Website:http://www.pepperchoplin.com

David is a freelance studio bass player and vocalist, having also played extensively in many resorts and clubs in the tri-state area, both with his own band and with other musicians. While not teaching or playing, he fills his spare time with music publishing activities, including editing, engraving, arranging and composing choral music and occasionally conducting choral reading sessions. He has approximately 200 choral octavos in print with Shawnee Press, GlorySound and Harold Flammer, as well as many other publishers throughout the United States.

David is a member of PMEA, ACDA, and IAJE. As a member of ASCAP, he has won writers awards for the last twelve years. David resides in Sciota, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Marti Lunn Lantz (also a published composer and lyricist) and six children.

E-Mail:dlantz@ptd.net

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Gail is the composer/arranger of choral works for children, youth, and adults, as well as compositions for organ and organ/piano duets for Shawnee Press and other major publishers. Her music has been featured in workshops on Georgia composers at several summer conferences of the Georgia chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. She is currently a faculty member at Macon State College and the organist at Riverside United Methodist Church.

Her background includes time as a Director of Music, leading a music program which included a chancel choir, a graded children and youth choir program, two handbell choirs, small performing groups, a Sacred Arts Center, and a concert series. She has performed as a singer, pianist, and organist in music festivals and choir tours in England, Vienna, and Innsbruck, as well as at St. Mark's in Venice and St. Peter's in Rome. Never one to leave any stone unturned, she has also composed and recorded commercial jingles, accompanied a community chorus, been music director and rehearsal accompanist for amateur and professional theater productions, played keyboard in a dance band, and taught middle school music. She is a member of ASCAP and ACDA.

E-Mail:glpollock@hotmail.com

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During his studies with Maurice Hinson, he earned the Performer's Certificate in Piano Performance. Sharp has served as Minister of Music in various churches in Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana and served in Venezuela as a music missionary with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

As a composer and arranger, he has written and arranged a number of choral and instrumental pieces for use in worship settings, many of which blend old hymn tunes with contemporary material. He is currently serving as Worship Pastor at the Northpoint Community Church in Covington, Louisiana where he resides with his wife Leanne and their three children, Bethany, Brittany, and Brandon.

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He has written widely for choir, orchestra, organ, piano and a variety of other instruments. His works are heard regularly on the Tabernacle Choir's CBS radio broadcast. He is listed in the International Who's Who In Music Dr Wolford served for many years as a member of the LDS Church's General Music Committee and was a member of the Executive Hymnbook Committee that was responsible for the publication of Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (1985). He also assisted in the preparation of the Church's publication for children, Children Songbook (1989).

He has well over 350 published compositions with Harold Flammer and other publishers. His Organ Studies for the Beginner is published in English in this country and in Japanese by a publishing firm in Osaka, Japan. He and his wife, Julie, are the parents of five children, four of whom are living.

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Winning awards each year beginning at the age of 9 as a junior composer led to the publishing of her first choral work by Shawnee Press when she was a senior in high school. Teaming with Lois Brownsey, Marti has choral works and songbooks published with Shawnee Press, Alfred, Warner Bros., and Hal Leonard, and has received the ASCAP award for many years. Collaborating with her husband, composer and teacher David Lantz III on many choral works, she is co-owner of Lantz Choral Publications, a publisher of sacred choral works.

Marti is a member of PFMC and teaches piano and voice in her music studio as well as holding the position of organist and handbell choir director at East Stroudsburg Presbyterian Church. In addition, she also works as a choral music engraver.

E-Mail:dlantz@ptd.net

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Active in clubs and concerts until retiring from live performance in 1997, Lois has sung, played bass and guitar, written and performed in pop, rock and blues bands in the USA and abroad.

She now lives in the Pocono Mountains of PA where she works as a community educator at a domestic violence and sexual assault crisis center. Lois and her husband, recording engineer Kent Heckman, also own and operate Red Rock Recording Studio.

E-Mail:redrock@ptd.net

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Dr. Robinson is a published author, composer and arranger with over 200 choral publications with various publishing companies. His choral writing ranges from classical choral arrangements for school and church choirs to original, jazz and show tune arrangements.

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After his discharge, Harry won a full scholarship at the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Bernard Portnoy. A fourth year took him to Paris where he was a pupil of the celebrated French clarinetist, Gaston Hamelin. From 1951-1959 his professional performance included membership in orhcestras in Houston, Denver, and Minneapolis. While in Denver, he completed a M.M. degree in woodwinds and composition at the University of Denver.

Professor Gee was one of the pioneers for the development of the woodwind choir as a concert medium. Shawnee Press has published four of these arrangements along with six other works for clarinet and saxophone.

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Bob graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied double bass with Roger Scott, principal bassist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Bob later received degrees in music education from the University of the Arts, and conducting at the College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State).

Bob was a member of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Josef Kripps, conductor, and is presently Principal Bass for the Delaware Valley Philharmonic and Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestras. In addition, he is a free lance bassist in Philadelphia, Atlantic City and Delaware performing with many of the stars of Broadway and stage shows, and has recorded with many of the top artists of the day. He also played the Mike Douglas show. Bob has performed with Henry Mancini, Bill Conte, Michael LeGrand, Marvin Hamlish, and most recently with Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli.

As a composer/arranger for Warner Brothers, Bob has published nearly 300 titles. His compositions and arrangements for orchestra cover a wide range of classical and popular styles which are performed all over the world. Bob conducts orchestra performances and reading sessions for regional festivals, and is a clinician at professional conferences across the United States.

E-Mail:cbp17@erols.com

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From symphonies to salsa, Slechta scores music in all styles for groups of all abilities and sizes. Recently he completed symphonic orchestrations for the Sony/Miramax film “Once Upon a Time in Mexico,” scheduled for a September 2003 release. The orchestrations were recorded by members of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Gary has played trumpet on over fifty albums and sound tracks, and has served as arranger on several, including Shawnee Press’s “Down By the Riverside.”

He holds music degrees from two Iowa institutions: Morningside College in Sioux City, and Drake University in Des Moines. Following eight years of directing bands in the public schools, he taught bands, trumpet, and conducting at Morningside College from 1971-1982. During his tenure at Morningside he founded and hosted the Tri-State Jazz Festival, which was destined to become the largest in the mid-west. He was elected to the Iowa Jazz Educators Hall of Fame in April of 2002.

Gary has two grown children, four grandkids, and a lovely wife, Anne, who owns her own music copying service in Austin. Free time is spent playing tennis and boating on nearby Lake Travis.

E-Mail:slechtamusic@earthlink.net

Website:http://www.selectapress.com

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Gene is a former public school teacher and university professor, who has been actively involved in church music as a soloist and director all of his life. He was a soloist with The Norman Luboff Choir, Executive Vice President, General Manager of J.W. Pepper - Detroit, and an Executive Editor for The Lorenz Corporation. He was also the Director of The Vocal Arts Academy, which was in residence at Oakland University, Rochester, MI for 25 years.

He is currently serving as President of Music Unlimited, Birdsongs Unlimited, EverGreen Morning Press and EverGreen Echoes. He has been representing Shawnee Press, Inc. as a clinician at all Music Unlimited / Dealer Reading Sessions and Workshops throughout the United States for over 25 years.

E-Mail:MUandEMP@aol.com

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Diemer has received annual ASCAP awards since 1962 for performances and publications. Other recognition includes a Louisville Orchestra Student Award, a Ford Foundation Young Composers Grant for a 2-year composer-residency in the Arlington, VA schools, an NEA fellowship in electronic music, a Kennedy Center Friedheim award for her Concerto in One Movement for Piano, the American Guild of Organists Composer of the Year award, a Mu Phi Epsilon Merit Award, etc., plus numerous commissions. A recent (2001) biography of ELD by Ellen Grolman Schlegel is published by Greenwood Press: A Bio-Bibliography, Emma Lou Diemer.

In publication since 1957, her music includes works for orchestra, band, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, voices, and electronic pieces. She has received numerous commissions from schools, churches, and professional groups. Her music is published by Oxford University Press, Hildegard Publishing Company, Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer, The Sacred Music Press, Arsis Press (Empire Publishing Service, Colla Voce, Treble Clef Press, Shawnee Press, and others. Recordings include piano and chamber music on the Vienna Modern Masters label (Encore), North/South Consonance (Sextet for Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, and Cello; Catchaturian Toccata for Flute and Piano), Living Artists (String Quartet No. 1), Leonarda (Fantasy for Piano--also on Fleur de Son Classics), Josara Records (Four Chinese-Love Poems), RBW Record Co. (organ with instruments), and recently-recorded orchestral works on the Contemporary Record Society label (Suite of Homages), Master Musicians Recordings (Concerto in One Movement for Piano and Santa Barbara Overture), TNC Recordings (Sonata for Flute and Harpsichord).

E-Mail:eldiemer@cox.net

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Marvin began studying piano at the age of five, and quickly developed a love for music. By college age, he was proficient in piano, organ, harp, trumpet, French horn, and melodic percussion and had begun writing and arranging music for area schools and churches.

Now, one of Houston’s leading musicians, Marvin serves as organist/choirmaster of St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church. He directs the Chancel Choir, the youth choir, Ensemble (chamber choir), and oversees St. Luke’s Ringers (handbell choir). Marvin is the resident pianist for The Lyric Centre in the heart of Houston’s Theatre District. As a skilled jazz pianist, he leads the Marvin Gaspard Trio, a well-known ensemble in the Houston music community. Marvin’s keyboard mastery and improvisational abilities place him in great demand as conductor for musical productions, entertainer for social and charitable events, and artistic consultant to other artists.

Mr. Gaspard’s choral arrangements have been performed and recorded by the internationally renowned Turtle Creek Chorale of Dallas, Texas. Accompanying his own compositions, he appeared with the Chorale in Dallas’ Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, in the spring of 1996. One of his original works was recorded as the title song of the Chorale’s CD, “Lifelong Friend.” Marvin has released two of his own CD’s: “Reflections on Hymns,” a solo piano album, and “Gumbo Mambo,” a piano and jazz combo collection.

For ten years Marvin composed original scene underscoring and arranged choral works for “Pageant, A Christmas Spectacular”. This Houston production was televised and broadcast nationwide featuring a 400-voice choir and full orchestra in a fully staged holiday production. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Gaspard has accompanied Grammy Award winner, Cynthia Clawson, in appearances from coast to coast. He has been featured as a solo piano artist in a nationally televised tour of Ecuador and also at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. Mr. Gaspard is a member of American Guild of Organists; The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP); Choristers Guild; Houston Professional Musicians Association (Local 65-699, American Federation of Musicians); Houston Tuesday Musical Club; Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America; and serves on the board of the Greater Houston Handbell Association. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Applied Music from The University of Southwestern Louisiana.

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As an NDEA scholarship recipient in '60, he received his master's degree and did doctoral studies in music composition and theory at George Peabody College in Nashville where he was a student of Phillip Slates and Arnold Salop in composition. At Peabody his organ teachers included Scott Withrow, Sam Bate Owens, and Peter Fyfe. At North Texas State University, he studied organ with Don Willing and Charles Brown.

While active at Carson-Newman as a member of the Music Deparment, Mr. Pethel taught organ, piano, composition, and theory. In addition to his recital work at C-N and churches, he also has served as organist in several churches. He currently is serving as organist at the First United Methodist Church in Jefferson City,Tennessee. Mr. Pethel also has served as the sight-singing adjudicator for state vocal and choral association festivals in Tennessee for many years.

A regular winner of ASCAP's Standard Award for signifcant creative work writing and publishing music since 1985, he has had over 250 titles published by seventeen major publishing houses and has written several commissioned works including a choral work for the Governor's School for the Arts in l988. His favorite medium for writing is the organ, but he also writes and publishes for the piano, solo instruments, solo voice, and chorus as well. Like many composers today, Mr. Pethel uses MIDI technology and Finale on his computer to produce his works Several of his composition students have had music published.

Mr. Pethel has been the nominee for Tennessee's Composer of the Year by music organizations in both Knoxville and Greenville, Tennessee. He was selected by Carson-Newman to receive the Outstanding Alumni Award in 96. He also was honored by the Knoxville chapter of the American Guild of Organists with their Meritorious Award in recognition of his contributions to that organization and his musical activities and achievements as a composer in the field of music.

He has two children, Ann Marie, a lawyer in Dallas, Texas, and Stephen, an electrical enginner working for a private company in Huntsville, Alabam. His wife, Martha Pethel, is a retired third grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Jefferson City.

In addition to being a free-lance composer, Pethel enjoys photography, swimming, hiking, and collecting interesting toys which he hopes to share with his first grandchild, Cole, Stephen and Cindy being the excited parents.

E-Mail:jpethel@charter.net

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E-Mail:jordahl321@earthlink.net

Website:http://home.earthlink.net/~jordahl321

Known particularly for his published choral music, Mr. Helvey’s compositions have been featured on various recordings, national network and PBS television broadcasts, in such distinguished concert venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and numerous locations throughout Europe and Asia. Drawn particularly to folk-based melodies and ancient hymn tunes, Mr. Helvey often incorporates them into his own writing. His choral arrangements of folk-based material have been acclaimed as “engaging” (Choral Journal), “definitive” (Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians), “magical” (The Hymn) and—in response to his occasional inclusion of jazz elements—“fun and certain to be of interest” (The Diapason). Besides receiving commissions from numerous church and university choirs, Mr. Helvey has recently completed projects for the renowned Turtle Creek Chorale of Dallas and for the Wisconsin Chamber Choir. In 2002, he received a John Ness Beck Foundation Award for his distinguished contribution to sacred choral music.

Mr. Helvey holds a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master of Music degree in composition and piano performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Designated an undergraduate Chautauqua Scholar, he pursued additional studies in piano at New York’s Chautauqua Institution. Mr. Helvey has studied piano with Raymond Herbert, Jan Houser, Richard Morris and Dolores Gadevsky; and his composition teachers have included John Cheetham, Thomas McKenney, Darrell Handel and Frederick Bianchi. As one passionate about effective congregational hymn-singing, Mr. Helvey received additional training in hymn-accompanying and organ improvisation from Gerre Hancock.

E-Mail:hergenfluet@hotmail.com

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In January 1997, Vladimir Ashkenazy conducted The Deutsches Symphonie Orchester/Berlin in Dr. Thomas's Marimba Concerto, "Loving Mad Tom". Evelyn Glennie was the soloist. "... his arsenal of romantic ghost music from Weber to Berlioz to Liszt is recognized here, and sound-consciously conveyed into the modern idiom." - Jürgen Otten, Der Tagespiel.

Many chamber organizations and orchestras have performed Dr. Thomas's music in the United States and abroad. His work for solo Marimba, "Merlin", has become a standard among percussionists. Currently, a number of recordings of this work are available, including ones by William Moersch on Newport Classics, and Nancy Zeltsman on GM Records. Recent works include Wind for solo Marimba, premiered by Makoto Nakura, "The Heroic Triad" a commission from Twentieth Century Unlimited for Guitar, Percussion, and String Orchestra. On January 4, 2001, Renée Fleming sang Mr. Thomas's song "I Just Found Another New Voice Teacher" with the Orpheus Strings on "Live From Lincoln Center". Ms. Fleming commissioned and performed a new work from Dr. Thomas in April, 2003. He accompanied her on the piano at Alice Tully Hall.

Dr. Thomas has become a regular guest of the People’s Republic of China. In March 2000, as a guest of the Chinese Government, Dr. Thomas performed his composition for solo piano, "Music at Twilight", in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. While in China, he was the head western judge of a panel of pianists from all over the world judging the 2000 Chinese Works Piano Competition.

In December 2001, Dr. Thomas went to Nanning, China to conduct his "Three Scenes from the Summer Palace" and other works, to perform as a pianist and to teach master classes in composition. Dr. Thomas is an Advisor of Guangxi Arts College and a guest conductor of the Guangxi Arts College Youth Orchestra. He returned to Nanning in October 2002 for further conducting and as the main Western speaker at a conference of middle school administrators and government officials from all parts of China. He is currently working on composing a new cross cultural ballet for the Chinese people with an original story written by his partner Howard Kessler.

In August 2003, and again in July of 2004 he lectured, taught, and performed in Muju Korea. He now heads this festival.

The American Brass Quintet has just recorded Dr. Thomas‘s "Consonanza Stravagaant"’ on their American Visions album and performed it at Lincoln Center in the Fall of 2003. Also at Lincoln Centerhe, he recently conducted the premier of "A Samba", his new work for two flute choirs and chamber orchestra. On October 9, 2004, he will have a piano recital in Paul Hall at the Juilliard School celebrating his 65th birthday and 35 years teaching at the Juilliard School.

E-Mail:AndyJuil@aol.com

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Stroope studied conducting with Dr. Douglas McEwen at Arizona State University and with Margaret Hillis, Chorus Master of the Chicago Symphony. He is currently the Director of Choral Studies at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, where he conducts the Concert Choir and directs the undergraduate and graduate choral conducting programs at the University. Dr. Stroope is also the Artistic Director of a summer international choral festival in Somerset, England and another summer music festival in Rome, Italy. This year, he will direct his 27th all-state choir, and is the only clinician to ever conduct the Texas all-state three times. Choral groups under his direction have taken 15 international tours, including China, Russia, Japan, Sweden, and South Africa. In the most recent international tour, he lead the Rowan Concert Choir in a tour of Italy, and a performance at the Vatican for mass. Dr. Stroope has also had performing groups on the ACDA and MENC National Conventions and the International Society of Music Education.

Dr. Stroope studied composition with Cecil Effinger and Normand Lockwood, both students of Nadia Boulanger (who was a student of Gabriel Faure'). Stroope has published 80 musical works and was the ACDA Raymond Brock commissioned composer for 2004. He has written works for the American Boy Choir, Boseman Symphony, Hilton Head Choral Society, Texas Choral Directors Association, and over 40 other groups.

Dr. Stroope was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, received a masters in Voice Performance from the University of Colorado, and received a doctorate in choral conducting from Arizona State University. He and his wife, Cheryl, enjoy travel and time with their Sheltie.

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Ms. Fiftal has developed original approaches to teaching classroom music and has worked with the Connecticut State Department of Education, developing the National Standards for the Arts. She has also served on various committees at the state level in forming State Curriculum Guidelines in music.

In her capacity as a music education consultant, Ms. Fiftal presents workshops throughout the country in music education and music theater. She also is a frequent guest conductor for elementary and middle school regional and district choral festivals in several states.

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