LINWOOD — “What’s a better way to learn about a piece of music than through the exact person who wrote it?”
That was the sentiment of Mainland Regional High School instrumental music educator Derek Rohaly, who said the school would be hosting world-renowned composer Quincy Hilliard on April 18.
“We are working on one of his pieces, ‘Variations on an African Hymnsong’ for our Spring Concert on May 16,” Rohaly said.
The opportunity to work with Hilliard was presented to the school through Coles Music Service in Sewell.
Its mission is to invest in the future of music. One way it does so is by serving local schools with education representatives who visit each school once a week and provide anything a music teacher might need from the shop directly to the classroom.
Services include student rental instruments; ensemble music; repairs and accessories for woodwind, brass and string; Orff instruments, electronic keyboards and amplifier repairs.
Coles Music also provides schools with professional development opportunities for teachers and performing clinics for students.
General manager Russ Coleman, 47, of Washington Township, said the shop works with several hundred schools in southern New Jersey and that bringing in nationally and internationally recognized experts in the industry is part of its educational outreach.
Coleman said the program exposes music students to experts in the field who teach them there are multiple opportunities associated with the industry.
He said they make connections through instruments manufacturers and music publishers and use them to make further connections throughout the area.
Coleman said Hilliard would be visiting the region for a couple of weeks and would be visiting Oakcrest High School as well.
“He is very accomplished and an all-around great guy on top of that,” Coleman said. “He’s very dynamic in front of students.”
According to a biography on the University of Louisiana, Lafayette website, Hilliard’s compositions for wind band are published by a variety of well-known publishers. In 2014, he received the prestigious Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in the Classical Music Division.
Hilliard was also recognized with a second Global Music Award for his work as a composer. In 2012, one of his pieces, Coty (clarinet and piano) was recorded on a CD that was nominated for a Grammy Award.
In 2008, he was commissioned by the Library of Congress to compose a work in celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
He is frequently commissioned to compose works, including one for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and a score for a documentary film, “The Texas Rangers.”
For many years, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) has recognized him with annual awards for the unusually frequent performance of his compositions. Hilliard is regularly invited to conduct, demonstrate effective techniques, and adjudicate festivals throughout the world.
Because Hilliard, the composer, conductor and educator, is also a scholar of Aaron Copland’s music and life, Copland estate administrators authorized Hilliard to publish the educational performance edition, Copland for Solo Instruments (Boosey and Hawkes, 1999).
To train school band students, he wrote “Superior Bands in Sixteen Weeks” (FJH Music Co., 2003), “Chorales and Rhythmic Etudes for Superior Bands” (FJH Music Co., 2004), “Scales and Tuning Exercises for Superior Bands” (FJH Music Co., 2009), “Theory Concepts, Books One and Two” and is the co-author of the “Skill Builders, Books One and Two” (Sounds Spectacular Series, Carl Fischer, 1996).
He is also the co-author of “Percussion Time” (C.L. Barnhouse Co.) which is a collection of music written specifically for the beginning percussion ensemble.
Hilliard has presented scholarly papers on music theory and analysis at meetings of the College Music Society and the Central Gulf Society of Music Theory (of which he is past president).
He has published articles in Opera Journal, The Instrumentalist, School Musician, Bandworld, American Music Teacher, Florida Music Director, and Tennessee Musician.
Currently, Hilliard holds the position of Composer in Residence and is the Heymann Endowed Professor of Music at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.
Previous teaching positions were at Nicholls State University, Florida International University, North Marion High School (Sparr, Florida) and White Station Junior and Senior High School (Memphis, Tennessee).
Hilliard holds a Ph.D. in music theory and composition from the University of Florida where, in 1999, he was recognized as the Outstanding Alumnus of the School of Music.
He holds the masters of music education from Arkansas State University and the bachelor of science in music education from Mississippi State University where he was designated College of Education 1998 Alumnus of the Year.
Hilliard’s early music experience was as a trumpet player in the public elementary and high school of his native Starkville, Miss. Dr. Hilliard is also president of Hilliard Music Enterprises, Inc. a personal consulting firm, which has a corporate board of distinguished music educators. He and his wife Rubye have two sons.
– STORY By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff