OUR COMPOSERS
Mary Lynn Lightfoot
Mary Lynn Lightfoot (b. 1952) is the Founding Editor of the educational choral line for Choristers Guild: Sing! Distinctive Choral Music for Classroom, Concert and Festival.
Lightfoot was previously Executive Editor for Heritage Music Press, the educational music division of The Lorenz Corporation.
In addition to her editorial responsibilities with Choristers Guild, from which she has now retired, Mary Lynn has effectively established herself with an active composing career and currently has over 260 published choral compositions, arrangements, and musicals. Alongside composing, she still actively serves as a clinician.
She has received an annual ASCAP Award for her compositions from the ASCAP Standard Awards Panel since 1988, and was selected an Outstanding Young Woman of America in 1984. Mary Lynn has received two prestigious awards from the Missouri Choral Directors Association (MCDA): in 1994, she was the recipient of the Luther T. Spayde Award for Missouri Choral Conductor of the Year, and in 2005, the recipient of the Opus Award for her SSA composition, The Rhodora. In conjunction with her writing, Mary Lynn is in frequent demand as a guest conductor/clinician for both schools and churches, having had the privilege of working with thousands of singers, students, teachers, and directors through workshops, clinics, and conventions in 38 states and throughout Canada.
Mary Lynn received her BME degree from Truman State University (formerly Northeast Missouri State University), Kirksville, where she graduated magna cum laude and was the recipient of the Sigma Alpha Iota Scholarship Award. She taught for a total of eight years in both public and private schools in Missouri and Iowa; has served in varying capacities for both a retail music dealer and a music publisher; served for two years as an Assistant Director for the Mid-America Youth Chorale’s Concert Tour of Europe; and for six years served as the Director of Youth Choirs and Assistant Chancel Choir Director at Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church, Raytown, Missouri.
Mary Lynn is a member of the American Choral Directors Association; the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP); the Missouri Music Educators Association; NAfME; Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity; Choristers Guild and the PEO Sisterhood.
Mary Lynn resides in Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband, Jack, a professional trumpet player.