GARRETT GILLINGHAM is a Michigan-born composer living in Michigan. His music has been described as, “compelling and exciting” and having “a very distinct sound world…ranging from pulsing, melodic pandiatonicism to highly detailed, capricious abstraction.” Garrett comes from a heavily musical family; his father a composer/pianist, his mother a pianist, and his sister a cellist. Writing music primarily for the concert hall, Gillingham’s pieces have been commissioned and performed by many acclaimed musicians, including: Jonathan Brown, John Nichol, Jonathan Nichol, Jason Nichol, Zhihua Tang, Adam Gandolfo, and ensembles, such as the Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra, the Central Michigan University New Music Ensemble, and the Dali Quartet, among others. Gillingham has also written several film scores, most recently for the award-winning short film, Fortune’s Favored, which was an official selection of the 2012 Santa Barbara Film Festival.
With a love for performing, during the Summer of 2013, Gillingham became a member of Willo Collective, based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Willo is a group of creators/performers that collaborate as individuals in small groups, as well as collectively under the masthead. As a tight-knit group of artists, the collective seeks to make music universally personal via collaboratively inclusive work. “Art from, and for, the community.”
Garrett holds a Bachelors degree in music composition from Central Michigan University, and currently lives in East Lansing where he is finishing his masters degree in music composition at Michigan State University. While at CMU, Gillingham studied under his father, David R. Gillingham, and is currently under the tutelage of Jere Hutcheson and Mark Sullivan at MSU.
Music at Mt. Parnassus 