Quincy C. Hilliard is a celebrated composer and music educator. Most recently, Dr. Hilliard was selected to receive the 2023 Eminent Faculty, Distinguished Professor Award from the University of Louisiana. In 2021, he was commissioned by Trinity College Press (London) to compose eight pieces for their new Woodwind Examination Syllabus. Currently, he is completing a book with two other distinguish music educators entitled Teaching Instrumental Music Across Settings: Contemporary Perspectives and Pedagogies. In 2014, Hilliard received the prestigious Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in the Classical Music Division. He was also recognized with a second Global Music Award for his work as a composer. In 2012, his piece, Coty (clarinet and piano) was recorded on a CD that was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2008, he was commissioned by the Library of Congress to compose a work in celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. He is frequently commissioned to compose works, including one for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and a score for a documentary film, The Texas Rangers. For many years, ASCAP has recognized him with annual awards for the unusually frequent performance of his compositions. Hilliard is regularly invited to conduct, demonstrate effective techniques, and adjudicate festivals throughout the world.

Because Hilliard, the composer, conductor, and educator, is also a scholar of Aaron Copland’s music and life, Copland estate administrators authorized Hilliard to publish the educational performance edition, Copland for Solo Instruments. To train school band students, he wrote Superior Bands in Sixteen Weeks, Chorales and Rhythmic Etudes for Superior Bands, Scales and Tuning Exercises for Superior Bands, and Theory Concepts, Books One and Two. He is also co-author of the Skill Builders, Books One and Two and Percussion Time, a collection of music written specifically for the beginning percussion ensemble. He has presented scholarly papers on music theory and analysis at meetings of the College Music Society and the Central Gulf Society of Music Theory (of which he is past president). He has published articles in Opera Journal, The Instrumentalist, School Musician, Bandworld, American Music Teacher, Florida Music Director, and Tennessee Musician.

Currently, Hilliard holds the position of Composer in Residence and is the Heymann Endowed Professor of Music at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Previous teaching positions were at Nicholls State University, Florida International University, North Marion High School (Sparr, Florida) and White Station Junior and Senior High School (Memphis, Tennessee).

Dr. Hilliard holds the Ph.D. in Music Theory and Composition from the University of Florida where, in 1999, he was recognized as the Outstanding Alumnus of the School of Music. He holds the Masters of Music Education from Arkansas State University and the Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Mississippi State University where he was selected as the College of Education 1998 Alumnus of the Year. Hilliard’s early music experience was as a trumpet player in the public elementary and high school of his native Starkville, Mississippi. Dr. Hilliard is also president of Hilliard Music Enterprises, Inc. a personal consulting firm, which has a corporate board of distinguished music educators.