Composer, conductor, arranger, teacher, hornist, singer - Jeff Whitmill has been involved in music all his life. His mother, a gifted pianist, and his father, a creative mind of the first order, raised him in a home full of music. Some of his earliest memories are of playing in the back yard while listening to his mother play Chopin, Bach and Mozart.

 

Currently the Director of St. Barnabas Center for the Arts (and St. Barnabas Lutheran's Choir Director) in Plymouth, MN (a suburb of Minneapolis), Jeff taught music for 15 years across a wide spectrum - from beginning 5th-graders to college students. He has taught bands, orchestras, choirs, music theory classes, private horn lessons, theatrical voice - and even did a stint one summer teaching the History of Rock 'n' Roll. His school performing ensembles accumulated an impressive array of awards at contests and festivals, and on more than one occasion he used his compositional skills to push the envelope for not only his students, but for judges and audiences as well. A particularly memorable incident involved a Texas UIL orchestra contest, a junior high orchestra and a 35-minute performance piece complete with staging, lighting, surround-sound electronic effects and nine projectors. The piece concluded with almost all of the students putting aside their instruments and singing. It was only performed once, but it was unforgettable for all who were there.

 

Multimedia works were a big part of Jeff's output for about a decade, but the far larger proportion of his work has been centered around traditional ensembles. Two symphonies, six masses, three ballets, five tone poems and two cantatas comprise the larger works of his career. In addition, he's written a host of smaller works for band and for chorus. He very much enjoys writing works for chorus; his MASS FOR JOB for Chorus, Baritone Solo, Brass Quintet, Percussion and Organ was premiered with in February, 2006, at St. Barnabas. In March of 2012, the piece was reprised, with an orchestra covering all the accompaniment.

 

Jeff's free descant site- http://whitmill.net/descants/ - offers free soprano descants for more than 100 hymns; they've been downloaded thousands of times in countries around the world.

 

Jeff has conducted - and written for - school music groups, community, church and corporate choirs and professional and community musical theatres.