Will Pitts

Will Pitts
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William Pitts is a composer, conductor, and arranger from Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up in Carrollton, Georgia, Will began his musical studies in piano and choir at age seven, saxophone in grade five, and began his conducting studies in grade seven. Pitts graduated summa cum laude from Emory University, where he studied saxophone, conducting, and composition. Pitts also worked as a librarian in the music department, and as an ensemble coach and administrative assistant in the department of instrumental music. He was the first student to complete an Honors Project in both Conducting and Composition.

Pitts’ choral and instrumental conducting engagements have taken him from coast to coast. He served as Conductor of the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps of Rockford, Illinois, for three years (2005, 2007-08). As the conductor of the 2005 Phantom Regiment, he received the highest conducting performance score and the second place leadership score among all Division I drum majors as a part of the Jim Jones Award evaluations. In 2008, the Regiment took first place honors as World Champions at the Drum Corps International Finals. Will currently serves on Regiment’s Management Staff.

Pitts is in high demand as an adjudicator and instructor for high school band programs in Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama and his students hold an impressive record of success in auditions and competitions. He has also been a featured clinician in conducting clinics in Illinois, Indiana, and Maryland. His compositions and arrangements have been commissioned and performed in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. He has written works for and been commissioned by the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, the Atlanta Trumpet Ensemble, The Vega String Quartet, the Atlanta Saxophone Quartet, the Northwinds Symphonic Band, and numerous high school and collegiate wind and chamber ensembles.

Pitts’ recent honors and awards have included the 2008 Katherine Blumenthal Award for Composition, the Emory Music Department Nominee for the Sudler Prize in the Arts, and the 2009 Award Recipient of the Atlantic Coast Conference Band Directors Association Grant for Young and Emerging Wind Band Composers.

He currently works on staff for the Collins Hill High School Bands in Suwanee, Georgia. He has served in the interim position of Director of Choral Activities at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Carrollton, Georgia. He has studied conducting with Undra Finley of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Richard Prior and Scott Stewart of Emory University; John Madden and Galen Karriker of Michigan State University; Clay Wascholz of Madison, Wisconsin; and Andrea Brown of Austin Peay State University. He has studied composition with John Anthony Lennon and Richard Prior of Emory University, Saxophone with John Jeffres and Jan Berry Baker of Emory University, and piano with Jan Adams and George Mann of the University of West Georgia. He has also attended symposiums, master classes, and clinics with Mallory Thompson, Frank Ticheli, Eric Ewazen, James Barnes, Anthony Maiello, and W. Francis McBeth.

Will is extremely excited to be continuing his life with the Regiment on the administrative staff.