Hello,

My name is Christopher T. Greco, and I am a music educator in Florida. My musical journey began in 5th grade by joining beginning band on Alto Saxophone at Cotee River Elementary in New Port Richey Florida. From there I attended Gulf Middle School and Gulf High School, pursuing the goal of being a music educator. I was fortunate enough to be given numerous opportunities to perform around the state, be selected for multiple honor groups, and perform out of state. During my sophomore at Gulf High School, I experimented with the idea of arranging and I am not going to lie…. it was bad. It got to a point that I didn’t think I was cut out for it. I put music composition to the side and focused on music education.

Then in 2010, I began my degree in Music Education at the University of South Florida. After two years of being in the program, I was asked about making some arrangements for some small chamber groups in the marching program. That sparked my interest in writing again. I began to dabble with some original ideas and even had a few full pieces. I tried to reach out to the composers and publishers I knew in the area to get some help and a lot came down to the idea of "what are you going to do to stick out?" (along with proper theory fundamentals and writing fundamentals). That began a long journey into the world of learning what it takes to get published.

After finishing my degree, I began teaching at River Ridge High School back in my hometown of New Port Richey, Florida in 2015. During that time I really started to do more arranging for the band. I worked on marching pieces, drill writing, jazz charts, and small chamber groups. That was when I started getting the confidence to share my pieces more publicly and actually venture out into the idea of being a composer.

By my fifth year at River Ridge High School, the program was doing very well and striving! At least until March 2020, when the world pretty much stopped. During the pandemic, I began to lose my momentum in music, teaching, and just overall passion for what I was doing. That is until I saw an ad for a Masterclass taught by Scott Rush. I enrolled in the class and it reignited my fire for teaching. It also began a gateway to starting my master's program at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago. During that time I started refining my ear for composition and using my experiences to make ideas that worked with my students or experiences I went through (or going through).

While at VanderCook, I decided to work on the composition form of FLEX and Adaptive works for my master’s project. That helped with my idea of breaking down concepts. After finishing my project, a few companies were interested in my arrangement, and was picked up through GIA publishing.

In the summer of 2022, I finished my Masters degree in Music Education and wanted to pursue the world of teaching middle school music. At that point, I transferred to Bayonet Point Middle School to rebuild a program and apply my concepts to a new environment. During that time I was able to understand what students were being able to play and encompass the idea of what is possible by middle school musicians. There was so much that I never thought about until teaching middle school. This gave me an understanding of the fundamentals and how to nurture them. As summer came after my first year at Bayonet Point, I received word that a friend of mine had sadly passed away and a community band was looking for a new director.

For those who have never taught high school, there isn’t a lot of downtime, but in middle school, I was able to become a part of J.R. Farley’s Anclote Symphonic Winds and soon became the new conductor in the fall of 2023. I was fortunate enough to meet a colleague and friend, Rob Romeyn who broke down some of my works and gave me another try in the world of publishing. In the winter of 2023, I was fortunately picked up by C.L. Barnhouse.