Since a young age, faith has been the center of Lois’ spiritual and social life. She is an active member of the church and finds joy in playing piano and reading. Lois attended Riverside Junior College and later transferred to California State College, Los Angeles. In between her studies, she worked part-time at the Los Angeles Youth for Christ, where she met Fred Bock. They married in 1964 and were later accompanied by their children, Stephen, Jonathan, and Sandy. In her leisure, Lois dedicated her time to the Volunteer League and the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles, which she considers a “rewarding and enjoyable experience.” In addition to her volunteer work, Lois wrote two books with Miji Working; “Happiness is a Family Time Together” and “Happiness is a Family Walk with God.” Today, Lois is blessed with five grandchildren and deeply treasures being a grandmother. 

Stephen Bock serves as President of Fred Bock Music Company, a job he completely enjoys.  After graduating from Occidental College, Mr. Bock spent fifteen years in the television and film business, working as a writer, producer, and editor on many award winning documentaries and network specials.  Following the untimely death of his father, Fred, Stephen returned to the family business in 1999 and has been there ever since.  He says that his tenure in the music publishing business has been a “thrilling ride and I’m glad to be working with such universally talented and nice people.”  He has served as  President of the Church Music Publishers Association from 2009-2010.  Mr. Bock resides in Los Angeles, with his wife Lisa, daughter Kaylee, son Alexander, and two annoying dogs who deserve no other attribution based on their behavior this morning.

Allan Robert Petker is a composer/arranger with more than 250 published works. He is the President of Pavane Publishing which he founded in 1989.  He also serves as the Vice President of Publications for the Fred Bock Music Group including Fred Bock Music, Gentry, National, FitzSimons and Hinshaw Music. He conducts three auditioned chorales: Consort Chorale (San Francisco), Santa Clarita Master Chorale, and Los Cancioneros Master Chorale, (Los Angeles).  Internationally, he has guest conducted choirs in England, Korea and France and led concert tours throughout Europe, the Baltic and South America.

Stephen is a graduate of Anderson University and an avid technologist with a strong background in Internet Development, focusing on Search Engine Optimization and Content Marketing. As the Vice President of Information Technology at FBPG, Stephen focuses on System Analysis and Software System Design. Stephen leads his technology team by creating strategic software specifications and developing the infrastructure to meet the needs of the 8 publishing imprints that comprise Fred Bock Publishing Group. Stephen and his core team come from Smack Smog Inc., where they provided digital strategies for healthcare, entertainment, and educational institutions. Stephen is involved in the local community and sits on the board of directors for several community nonprofits. When he’s not playing Xbox or camping at the beach, you can often find him with a camera in his hand, wandering the streets of Los Angeles.

FRED BOCK PUBLISHING GROUP

James E. Green serves as the Managing Editor for Fred Bock Publishing Group. Before joining FBPG, Green worked as in-house Editor with Hinshaw Music and Walton Music.

Along with his editorial duties, Green is an accomplished composer and arranger, having multiple published choral titles, original pieces for dance troupes, as well as saxophone, Native American Flute and concert bands. Green has taken great pride in connecting with the Cherokee Nation (Tahlequah, OK) and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (Cherokee, NC) and has put forth substantial efforts to keep the Cherokee language alive through choral music. Green composes and arranges Cherokee music using the Western / Overhill Cherokee dialect and the Eastern / Kituwah dialect.

In his free time, he enjoys making Native American Flutes and composing original songs for the instrument and finds joy in the hundreds of relationships that he has built with composers over the years.

FRED BOCK MUSIC COMPANY
EPIPHANY HOUSE

Richard Nichols is currently the Choral and Instrumental Editor for Fred Bock Music Company and Epiphany House Publications in addition to serving as Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Sterling College. His musical background is quite diverse with areas of expertise in teaching, performing, composing, conducting, recording and publishing. He has served as a professor of music, as a performer with several major symphony orchestras in the US and abroad, as the director and editor of music publishing companies, as a conductor of choirs and orchestras, as a producer and director of commercially released recordings and as a composer of over 150 published compositions.

GENTRY PUBLICATIONS

Dr. Brandon D. Boyd received his Ph.D. in choral music education and M.M. in choral conducting at Florida State University, and earned his B.S. in music education from Tennessee State University. He serves as the Assistant Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Choral Music Education at the University of Missouri. Within his responsibilities as a professor, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in choral conducting and choral music education, as well as conducts the MU Glee Club and Concert Chorale. His versatile career as a conductor has granted him regular appearances as a clinician, composer-in-residence, collaborative pianist, and presenter for a variety of conferences, conventions and festivals. As a composer and arranger, Boyd’s music is sung nationally and internationally. 

HINSHAW MUSIC

Dr. Pearl Shangkuan is a highly sought-after conductor, lecturer and clinician who has led performances and workshops across six continents. She serves as the Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, MI, and as the chorus director of the Grand Rapids Symphony; a Grammy-nominated professional orchestra. Shangkuan has a signature choral series with earthsongs, is the music editor of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Choral series and has a new signature choral series with Hinshaw music. In 2014, she made her conducting debut at Carnegie Hall and was an invited guest lecturer at the World Symposium for Choral Music held in Seoul, South Korea. She has conducted numerous choirs nationally and internationally, and has headlined several ACDA state and other professional conferences. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Chorus America and has served as president of the ACDA Central Division and Michigan ACDA, where she was honored with the Maynard Klein Choral Award for “artistic excellence and lifetime leadership in choral music” (2013).

HINSHAW MUSIC

Tom T. Shelton, Jr. is a native of Greensboro, N.C., and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He earned both a Bachelor of Music Education and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting. He is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Choral Studies, Music Education, and Sacred Music Department at Westminster Choir College. In addition, he is the director of Children’s and Youth Choirs at Princeton United Methodist Church and conducts the Semi-Tones Ensemble with the Princeton Girlchoir Organization.

Professor Shelton has a passion for music education in all areas: church, school, and community. He taught middle school choral music in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County for 18 years. During that time, he was selected Teacher of the Year for both Atkins Middle School and Kernersville Middle School. In 1999 the North Carolina Music Educators Association presented him with the North Carolina Middle School Music Teacher of the Year award.

Professor Shelton is an active American Choral Directors Association member, having served as the National President (2017-2019).  Other ACDA leadership positions have included Southern Division president (2011-2012), National R&S chair for Middle School/Junior High Choirs (2007-2009), and North Carolina president (2005-2007).

Professor Shelton has conducted and adjudicated choral festivals and presented workshops in 21 states, Hong Kong; Minsk, Belarus; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Sri Lanka. He has conducted Choral Festivals in Carnegie Hall, Honor Choirs for the Central Division ACDA and Southern Division ACDA, as well as All State and Festival Choirs throughout the United States. Professor Shelton is the Series Director for the Music for Young Voices Series with GIA Publications and has over 60 compositions published by Choristers Guild, Colla Voce Music, G. Schirmer, Galaxy, GIA Publications, Growing in Grace Curriculum, Heritage Music Press, Hinshaw Music Company, Santa Barbara Music Press, and Walton Music.

HINSHAW MUSIC

William P. Carroll (DMA, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music) is Professor Emeritus in the UNCG School of Music. On the UNCG music faculty for 29 years, he served as Associate Dean, Chair of the Vocal Studies Division and Director of Choral Activities.  He has served as Editor for Hinshaw Music since 1997, fostering relationships with some of the top choral composers in the world, including John Rutter, Dan Forrest, Frank Ticheli, and hundreds of others.

H.T. FITZSIMONS COMPANY

Allan Robert Petker is recognized as a noted composer and arranger. With more than 250 published works, his conducting books “Choral Questions and Answers” Volumes I, II, III, IV and V, have become staples in school curriculum. Allan received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from California State University Northridge in music, concentrating in viola (BA), voice and choral conducting (MA). Allan currently serves as the Vice President of Publications for Fred Bock Publishing Group, including its subsidiaries, Fred Bock Music Company, Gentry Publications, National Music Publishers, H.T. FitzSimons Company and Hinshaw Music. As a conductor, he has led concert tours throughout Europe, the Baltic and South America, and has guest conducted choirs in England, Korea and France. Additionally, Allan serves as the President of Pavane Publishing, which he founded in 1989. 

Joshua Chai is a freelance conductor, composer, tenor, organist, pianist and software engineer. He holds a DMA in choral conducting from the University of Kentucky, an MM in choral conducting from CSULB, and a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College in music and mathematics.

Over the last two decades of working with many voices, Joshua has conducted large choral masterworks and chamber choirs, youth choruses and collegiate men’s, women’s, mixed ensembles, community choirs, and professional choruses. Chai specializes in conducting the sacred choral and orchestral repertoire, as well as modern challenging and experimental new music. His compositions have been premiered by ensembles around the country, including recently as a directing member of Inversion Ensemble, a C4 network choir based in Austin, TX specializing in timely new works by living composers.

As a collaborative pianist, he has served ACDA at regional, divisional, and national conventions as an honor choir accompanist, and continues to serve professional ensembles and conductors around the country at the keyboard.  

NATIONAL MUSIC PUBLISHERS
ALLIANCE PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Bradley Ellingboe is well known as a composer and arranger of choral music, with over 150 pieces in print. His “Requiem” for chorus and orchestra has been heard in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and in Prague, Bratislava and Budapest. “Star Song” for chorus, tenor solo and orchestra was premiered in Lincoln Center and Great Britain in 2014. He has won annual awards in composition from ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) since 2000. Ellingboe is editor of Choral Music for Sundays and Seasons (Augsburg Fortress Press, 2004) a compendium of sacred choral music. He is also well known as an expert on the vocal music of Scandinavia, and particularly the songs of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843–1907). His editions of Grieg’s songs: 45 Songs of Edvard Grieg (1988) and A Grieg Song Anthology (1990) are both published by Leyerle Publications. For his work on making the music of Norway better known among English-speaking singers, Ellingboe was awarded Sankt Olavs Medaljen by His Majesty, King Harald of Norway, in 1994.  He has curated the choral series Music for the Church Year (Neil A. Kjos Music Company) since 1996. In 2017 he also became Senior Editor for National Music Publishers.

JUBAL HOUSE

Edwin M. (Ed) Willmington is the Director of the Fred Bock Institute of Music of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts, and Composer-in-Residence, at Fuller Theological Seminary. As the institute director, Wilmington’s responsibilities include teaching graduate level classes and serving as a mentor to students who lead the Fuller Seminary Chapel ministry. He has a BA in Church Music and Conducting (Bethel University, MN), MM in Composition and DMA in Composition from the University of Arizona. Wilmington developed Jubal House Publications as a means of sharing new works as tools for worship planning, and holds a special interest in encouraging the creativity of musical artists. His compositional projects include “Jubilate! An Ancient-Future Concert Mass,” and “Reconciled in Christ,” the music for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (Cape Town, South Africa, 2010).