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Dr. Curtis is a composer, educator, and performer who serves as Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He also oversees and writes music for Psallos.

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Curtis grew up immersed in the sounds of blues, jazz, and rock music. His background in popular music intersected with the world of classical music during his training in higher education. He completed three degrees in music composition, earning a BM from Union University, a MM from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a DMA from the University of Memphis. He studied with a variety of notable composers including Ron Boud, Mark Engebretson, Alejandro Rutty, Kamran Ince, and John Baur.

Curtis’ compositional voice is a blend of traditional, avant garde, and popular idioms that adventurously explores the rich palette of musical possibilities yet maintains an accessibility for the twenty-first-century listener. He writes music of all types, from witty instrumental reflections on poetry to solemn orchestral song cycles on the theme of exile. In 2017, Union University commissioned a work honoring the wounded warriors featured in President George W. Bush’s paintings, Portraits of Courage, a musical homage that was premiered for the President. Curtis’ musical language is manifested most clearly in his involvement with a group he founded, directs, and composes for called Psallos. For this eclectic mixture of vocals, chamber ensemble, rock/folk band, and electronics, Curtis writes music that teaches biblical theology, cultivates worship, and infuses an artistic quality into the contemporary Christian music scene. His musical adaptations of Romans, Hebrews, and Jude have been lauded for their creative pairing of biblical exegesis with complex and imaginative musical expressions.

In addition to having spent seven years working in Student Life, Curtis has been teaching music in higher education since 2009. He has engineered and produced four albums and is the author of the fantasy-adventure novel The New and Better Way.

He currently lives in Jackson with his wife, Melody, and their daughter, Elowyn.