Larry Shackley

Larry Shackley is a full-time composer and music editor from Columbia, SC. From 1995-2007, he taught and directed the music program at Columbia International University in Columbia, SC. Prior to that, he worked for several years at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, creating original music and producing radio programs for the Moody Broadcasting Network. He has been active in church music since his teens, and served as staff keyboardist for ten years at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL. As part of the Willow Creek music team, he played across the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, and Australia. He has also served in the music ministry at several churches in South Carolina. As an undergraduate, he studied composition with Samuel Adler, Warren Benson and Joseph Schwantner at the Eastman School of Music. Mr. Shackley returned to school in the 1990s, earning his Master in Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in composition from the University of South Carolina, studying with Dick Goodwin, Fred Teuber, and Sam Douglas. His master's thesis, a concerto for English Horn, received its premiere performance in 2006 at the annual convention of the International Double Reed Society. Composer of over thirty scores for films, videotapes, and radio dramas, Mr. Shackley is also an active studio musician, arranger, and orchestrator. Over the past several years, he has devoted most of his composing to music for the church, writing over 650 keyboard arrangements and 350 choral pieces for a variety of publishers. He has won ASCAP standard panel awards every year since 1998, and has received commissions from churches, schools, and community choirs across America. Shackley currently works as a choral and keyboard editor for The Lorenz Corporation, and edits their piano and choral magazines "The Church Pianist," "Keyboard Worship and Praise," and "The SAB Choir." Larry Shackley and his wife, Joni, have four children: Stephanie, Andy, Laurel, and Geoffrey; and five grandchildren: Emily, Katie, Topher, Luke, and Evelyn.