Meet Our Instructors
Stephen Hill - Stephen heads up our orchestration classes. Besides his compositional skill, Steve was asked to teach because he plays many of the instruments covered, thus giving you the player’s perspective on what you wrote. He received his Bachelor of Music in Theory and Composition (1980) from Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas where he studied with Dr. W. Francis McBeth, and his Master of Arts in Music Composition (1984) from Cal State University, Los Angeles where he studied privately with the noted composer, Dr. Byong Kon Kim.
Ric Flauding - Ric heads up our new arranging and choral classes, and writes on Guitar at www.soniccontrol.com. He's written arrangements for literally hundreds of album projects. Ric studied composition and related subjects under Pulitzer nominated composer Dr. Albert Harris, Bryant McKernan, John Shaffer Smith, Dr. James Drew, Dr. Peter Odegard (UC Irvine), and Dr. Lloyd Rogers. He's had private composition studies with Roy Harris, Halsey Stevens (USC), John Biggs, and Leonard Stein (USC). He studied film scoring at UCLA on an ASCAP scholarship, conducting with Don G. Fontana (instrumental and choral), and piano with Maria Ledda. He's studied guitar with Barney Kessel, Horace Hatchett and Ted McKown. Ric's music has been recorded by The London Symphony Orchestra. He's performed on recordings with David Benoit, John Patitucci, Abe Laborial, Alex Acuna, Justo Almario, Brandon Fields, Jeff Kashiwa, Eric Marienthal, Russell Ferrante, Paulinho Da Costa, Carlos Vega, Michael Landau, John Ferraro, Jimmy Earl, Frank Gambale, Dave Hooper, Paul Brown, John Andrew Shreiner, Megadeth and others. Ric is the former head of the Film Scoring Department at Biola University in Los Angeles. He's earned awards from ASCAP, Billboard Magazine, American Song Festival, the Film Advisory Board, and the coveted Ace Award. Writing about his work, Billboard said, "Consistently enjoyable work sparkles with Flauding's beautiful arrangements."
Bill Hooper - Bill teaches counterpoint and choral writing classes. He has over 60 published choral pieces to his credit including His Saving Grace Proclaim [cantata, 1968], Sing Joyfully [choral collection], Jubilee [cantata], Canticle of Praise [children's cantata], Incidental Music for Anouhil's Becket produced by le Petite Theatre du Vieux Caree, New Orleans [1973], The Vision of Nahum [2001], By the Grace of God [2002]. Bill is the 1973 Winner of the Delius Composition Contest and Winner of the New Times Composition Contents in 1974. Bill earned his MA at the University of Iowa [music], his PhD at the Peabody College of Vandebilt University [music], and private study with Humphrey Searle at the Royal College of Music in London [1969-70].
Peter Alexander - Peter is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston. He's studied counterpoint with Dr. Hugo Norden at Boston University, and orchestration in Hollywood with Dr. Albert Harris, Arthur Morton (Jerry Goldsmith's orchestrator), Jack Smalley and Scott Smalley. He's author of the critically acclaimed How Ravel Orchestrated: Mother Goose Suite, the Professional Orchestration Series, Counterpoint by Fux, and Applied Professional Harmony. His most recent music books are The Street Smart Guide to Logic 8 and the critically acclaimed Writing & Performing Christian Music. He's also the author of The Road: The Story of The Good Samaritan which releases in June 2008 and which is being produced as a one man show with recorded underscore. His most recent orchestrations include Satie's Gymnopedie 1 and Debussys' Sarabande for strings. For orchestra, he's orchestrated Debussy's The Little Shepherd Boy and Jimbo's Lullaby. In addition, he writes the weekly column Music Technology & You for Film Music Magazine published out of Los Angeles.
