Trained initially as a music educator, Dr. Saunders taught for six years in the public schools of Georgia and Ohio. He remains
committed to the development of young musicians, and his compositions are often conceived with high school-level performers in mind,
but with an ear toward creating pieces which challenge the expectations and capabilities of young musicians. His music is insistent
in its rhythmic approach, and uncompromising in its musical sophistication, even when intended for younger performers. Spirituality
also plays a key role in Dr. Saunders’ work. He has written a series of short choral pieces to scriptural texts, several longer
sacred choral works and a cantata entitled Prayers in Time of War. His upcoming projects include a cantata based on the Gospel
of John.
Dr. Saunders’ concert band composition Variations on a French Carol is currently slated for publication by Imagine Music
Publishing. Outside composition, Dr. Saunders’ research interests include the wind band repertoire, the vocal music of Benjamin
Britten, Classical-era form and its transformation after 1800 and the role of rhythm in musical meaning. In addition, Dr. Saunders
has a keen interest in the transformations due to be wrought on music and music education during the 21st century as the result of
the democratization of recording and distribution technology.
A native of Texas, Dr. Saunders spent his youth and early adulthood
in Ohio before coming to the Oklahoma Panhandle in 2007. His interests outside music include fitness, the outdoors and science
fiction. Dr. Saunders has a voracious appetite for the written word, particularly history, physical and social science and modern
literature. He has been pleasantly surprised to find that composition and university teaching have afforded him opportunities
to indulge his long-deferred desire to travel, and wishes his wife could accompany him more frequently. Journeys throughout
the United States and a luminous trip to Saxony and the Czech Republic are cherished memories he hopes to be able to replicate in
the near future. Specific destinations he dreams about are the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Greece, Egypt, and Tanzania. He would one day like to walk on the surface of Mars, but fears he may have been born too soon.
Dr. Saunders lives in Guymon, Oklahoma with
his wife, Becky. He finds the people to be wonderful, the sunsets incomparable, and the wide-open expanses of the High Plains
awe-inspiring.