About Us

“I am not what you see. I am what time and effort and interaction slowly unveil.”

― Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons

It all began with piano lessons.

Jim Colman’s musical career began at the age of eight when his parents started sending him for piano lessons. The early lessons uncovered some talent and he was playing for church services by the time he was 12. His love of sacred music blossomed into a church concert ministry in high school which continues to this day.

As a sophomore in college, he decided to pursue a career in teaching music at the college level. This desire led him to complete a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate in music education. During his graduate program, he also discovered a strong affinity for music theory and arranging.

Over the years, Jim has performed at churches, camps, and conferences around the country and in several foreign countries. He’s also completed 14 years as a college music theory teacher. These experiences have given him a wonderful palette of musical knowledge and experience to use in his arranging and composing.

Our Composing and Arranging Journey

Although I got involved with learning and performing music early in life, I didn’t start putting my musical ideas on paper until college and graduate school. My first opportunity to make an arrangement and then create a manuscript came when a friend asked me to write an arrangement for a French horn duo. I’ve always enjoyed the beautiful sound of the horn. At the end of the process, this arrangement of Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken was born.

My studies in graduate school opened vast new ways to express myself musically, and I began creating new piano arrangements. This early arrangement of two different versions of All Hail the Power Medley incorporates my love of running scale passages and two-part counterpoint.

In 2013, a musical collaboration with my son, a professional opera singer, pushed me heavily into composing and arranging for vocal soloists. My son found that the catalog of advanced sacred solos for low voice is somewhat limited, so he asked if I would arrange some pieces for him. The first arrangement I did for him combined the beautiful sonority of the Negro spiritual, Wayfaring Stranger, with the hopeful sweetness of Dvorak’s Going Home theme from the New World Symphony.

Currently, I’m arranging for small ensembles and composing some new works for piano. The first piece below is born from the fact that I miss the classic Christmas carols. We don’t hear them much anymore. In the Classic Christmas Medley, I’ve combined Silent Night, Joy to the World, and O Come, All Ye Faithful into a woodwind quintet. I especially like the bassoon part.

The second piece, Melancholy Monday, is my newest composition. Some days just aren’t very happy. This piece evokes those feelings, but even down days provide an opportunity to create something beautiful.