Tracey Craig McKibben – Composer/Arranger

We are thrilled to have Tracey McKibben as our newest composer/arranger to HolySheetMusic.  Her first piece we present is a piano arrangement of “Sing We Now of Christmas“.   Tracey has a wonderful skill and talent to arrange solid and carefully crafted music for the beginner-intermediate piano student.  Please take a look at her arrangement: Sing We Now of Christmas.

Here’s a little more about Tracey:

Tracey began studying the piano at age 7. However, after 3 teachers in 3 different states and 5 years in John Thompson, Book 1, she was on no one’s list of “Most Likely to Succeed at Piano.” Thankfully, she had parents who were willing to persevere and unwilling to consider quitting an option, and by the age of 13, she had begun to accompany worship and play offertories at church.

Tracey earned her B.A. and M.A. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Pensacola Christian College in Pensacola, Florida, where she studied piano with Daniel Nagy and Daisy de Luca Jaffe. Following graduate school, she taught music in two private schools before transitioning to teaching private lessons at her own studio. She also served as Music Director at Faith Baptist Church in Sellersville, PA, for a year where she conducted church choir and handbell groups.

Tracey did some solo piano arranging in college, but did not begin composing seriously until a few years after college . Her first surviving composition (i.e. the first one that didn’t get pitched in the trash can!) was a vocal solo inspired by Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat titled “Does the Hand of the Potter Shake?” This was soon followed by many more vocal, choral and handbell works. Around this time, a cello followed her home and demanded attention. Many string arrangements were the result of requests from friends and fellow teachers.

Although Tracey always has anywhere from two to two dozen arrangements in the works, she is currently working on two major piano projects. The first is The Welsh Collection, arrangements of both familiar and not-so-familiar hymn tunes with Welsh origins. The completed collection for solo piano is scheduled to be completed in 2016, although some arrangements are already available individually. The second project is a collection of elementary and intermediate Christmas favorites that will be available as they are completed.