Biography

Quincy C. Hilliard

Quincy C. Hilliard’s compositions for wind band are published by a variety of well-known publishers. Most recently, he was selected to be inducted into the Mississippi State University Department of Music Hall of Fame inaugural Class in 2025. Also in 2025, he received the Outstanding Bandmaster of the Year award from Phi Beta Mu the International Bandmasters Fraternity. In 2023, he received the Eminent Faculty, Distinguished Professor Award from his university – the University of Louisiana. In 2021, he was commissioned by Trinity College Press (London) to compose eight pieces for their new Woodwind Examination Syllabus. Currently, he has completed a book with two other distinguish music educators entitled Teaching Instrumental Music Across Settings: Contemporary Perspectives and Pedagogies which was released by Oxford University Press. In addition, he has just complete a rhythm book for training middle and high school students entitled Counts of Silence published by Wingert-Jones music publishers. In 2014, Hilliard received the prestigious Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in the Classical Music Division. He 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). He is also the co-author of Teaching Instrumental Music: Contemporary Perspectives and Pedagogies to aid in the teaching of music education students at the college level. To train school band students, he wrote Superior Bands in Sixteen Weeks (FJH Music Company, 2003), Chorales and Rhythmic Etudes for Superior Bands (FJH Music Company, 2004), Scales and Tuning Exercises for Superior Bands (FJH Music Company, 2009), Theory Concepts, Books One and Two. He is the co-

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author of the Skill Builders, Books One and Two (Sounds Spectacular Series, Carl Fischer, 1996). Hilliard is also the co-author of Percussion Time (C.L. Barnhouse

Company) which is a collection of music written specifically for the beginning percussion ensemble. He 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).

He holds the 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 selected as the 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, Mississippi. Dr. Hilliard is also president of Hilliard Music Enterprises, Inc. a personal consulting firm, which has a corporate board of distinguished music educators.

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