About the Book
Away in a Manger (SSATB divisi with Piano and Flute solo), A La Nanita Nana (SATB in Spanish with chords for use with Guitar, Ukulele or other fretted instruments), Angels We Have Heard on High (SATB acapella), As With Gladness Men of Old (SATB Choir and Piano: optional words for Hark! the Herald Angels Sing included), and Deck the Hall (SATB acapella with optional Kazoos). Edited and arranged by M. Ryan Taylor. About M. Ryan Taylor: I've written operas, dozens of choral works, art songs, song cycles, pop songs, children's songs, hymns (are you noticing a trend toward vocal music?) as well as other works of chamber music . . . I'm also a hiker, recipe hacker, a multi-media artist, a choral conductor, a performing baritone, an ukulele/tuba/piano/pennywhistle and once-upon-a-time bassoon player, a son, a friend, a husband, a father, a sci-fi and Tolkien fan, a poet, a book-lover, a hymn-arranger, a gardener, a church organist, a some-time animator, a party-thrower, a concert-producer, a web-builder, a collector of music toys and oddities. These are some of the things that inform and shape my music. OPERA: My first opera, Abinadi, was premiered, filmed and broadcast by Brigham Young University in 2003. I then self-produced, directed and performed in my second opera, The Other Wise Man: a chamber opera in one-act, based on the story by Henry Van Dyke, in 2006-7. My third opera, based on George MacDonald's fairy tale, The Giant's Heart, is a work in progress and may never be finished . . . I'm leaning in my heart a little more toward musical theater these days. In 2013-14 I've worked on co-writing a number of songs for Mark Stoddard's Strangers in Nauvoo musical. ART SONG: Some of the song cycles I've written include a teaming with The American Fork Arts Council Press to set poems by 10 living Utah-based poets; the result was a set of songs entitled, 3 Floors to the Grass. Other song cycle premieres include the Moon Songs on poems of Vachel Lindsay (winner of the Vera Hinckley Mayhew Composition Contest) by soprano Heather Chipman and pianist Dwight Bigler, A Light that Shames the Noonday Sun at the BYU 200th birthday celebration of Joseph Smith Jr. by tenor Lawrence Vincent and pianist Scott Holden, and All Heaven and it was One Hour Old (based on the Christmas poetry of Katherine Tynan) by soprano Venicia Wilson and pianist Lynn Jemison-Keisker. CHORAL WORKS & CONDUCTING: My choral compositions, available at ChoirWorks.com, have been performed across the globe, and are informed by my vocal training and extensive experience as a choral conductor. I currently direct The American Fork Children's Choir (I am a Kodaly-certified developmental music education specialist) and serve as the associate conductor for the Timpanogos Chorale. Other choral experience includes conducting the American Fork Hillcrest Stake Choir, various congregational choirs from 1990-2009, the Phoenix Rising Chamber Choir, as well as being the student conductor for Fountain Valley High School in 1989-90. I've sung in a number of highly skilled choral organizations including the Phoenix Rising Chamber Choir, Timpanogos Chorale, BYU Concert Choir, Chapman College Chamber Singers, St. Wilfred's Episcopal Choir, St. James Episcopal Choir, Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Choir, Orange County Youth Choir, Orange County Honor Choir, FVHS Troubadours and FVHS Concert Choir. EDUCATION: I've completed a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance and a Master of Music degree in composition from Brigham Young University. I've studied conducting with Mack Wilberg, Ronald Staheli, Zsuzsanna Mindszenty, Marvin Taylor and Brett Rassmussen. I was also fortunate enough to study composition with my mentor and friend, David Sargent, as well as Stephen Jones, Murray Boren and Michael Hicks.
