John C. Leavitt – Composer/Arranger

John C. Leavitt (b. 1990, Anaheim, California), is a student at Brigham Young University finishing up a degree in Piano Performance under Dr. Jeffrey Shumway. He is studying orchestration and film score composition with Ron Saltmarsh, Sam Cardon, and Merrill Jensen. Growing up in Colorado Springs, he began learning piano at the age of 8, and violin additionally at the age of 14. As a teenager he spent many summers making short films with his siblings – all of which are wonderfully-embarrassing. His love of composition and film music has grown with him and he has been happily involved in various projects in orchestral, chamber, solo-instrumental, and Broadway-style works. John’s music has been described as “American Romanticism,” but he is known to enjoy writing in a wide range of styles. He loves all genres of music – as long as it makes him feel something, he will love it.

John’s first piece with HolySheetMusic.com is “I Stand All Amazed.”  John writes: This arrangement of “I Stand All Amazed” was written to highlight two different perspectives on the Atonement of Jesus Christ: the grandeur and triumph of his conquering of death, and also the personal intimacy that this sacrifice is in each individual heart. The music is at times declamatory and magnificent, and at other times tender and profound. It is a simple, but poignant arrangement that should be fairly easy to learn, leaving much more time, hopefully, for bringing musicality and polished sentiment to the performance.

The recording is sung by the Lux Singers, an elite religious choral ensemble under the direction of Leland Spindler. Based out of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Provo, Utah, their mission is to sing great works from masters of all religious denominations and sects; to sing for the congregates of all religious faiths, in their places of worship. They strive to share the light of each religion’s musical traditions with the world.