A. Douglas Biggs DMA lives in Fern Creek, Kentucky, just outside of Louisville. He owns Tunesmith Music where he works as a composer, arranger, editor and music engraver. Dr. Biggs is a recognized expert in the music processing platforms Finale and Sibelius as well as music notation, theory and orchestration. In recent years he has become more involved with audio processing and recording using the Cubase platform.

Biggs received his bachelor degree from Dartmouth College, his master’s degree in music theory and composition from the University of Louisville School of Music and holds a doctorate in composition from the University of Kentucky School of Music. His principal teachers have been David Evan Jones, Gerald Gable, and John Appleton at Dartmouth, Nelson Keyes, Claude Baker, and Steve Rouse at the University of Louisville, and Joseph Baber and Phillip Miller at the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Biggs is  widely experienced, composer, performer and artist. His work spans a wide range of styles and genres. He is the creator of numerous works for orchestra, band, chamber music, chorus, and a growing involvement in video, film and game projects. His career includes experience as a professional opera singer, jazz pianist, accompanist, repetiteur, repertoire coach and voice teacher. He has also conducted on several occasions.

As a composer, Biggs has received several awards and other recognition. While at the University of Kentucky, he was a two-time recipient of the Al Haig graduate fellowship and a recipient of a Rudolf Nissim/ASCAP Award. His Haiku, a suite for Violin and Piano was a winner of the Austin Peay State University Composer’s Competition and was featured in a concert of American Composers in Russia. Later, he would receive high praise for his work as composer and music director of the documentary “The Indian Picture Opera, a Vanishing Race,” and was the recipient of a “Distinguished Musician” designation for his The Merton Songs by the IBLA Foundation’s World Music Competition. His company, Tunesmith, was recognized by the Music Publisher’s Association with a Revere Award for his work on Henry Mollicone’s Gabriel’s Daughter.

"Sonolize is a wonderful platform for an independent composer. The people are great to work with and I am very happy with how my music is presented."
A. Douglas Biggs, composer

For many years, Biggs was a touring operatic tenor and recitalist. As a singer, he was a winner of numerous competitions and awards, including the Metropolitan Opera Competition, the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, a nominee for the Richard Tucker Award, a Chicago Lyric Opera Ensemble Finalist, a Liederkrantz Wagnerian Singer competition, and the Baltimore Opera Competition.

During his years as a performer, Biggs appeared with various opera companies, orchestras and in recital around the country. For two years, he was a resident artist with Opera Colorado, spent time in a touring company of Phantom of the Opera, was a singer in several studio recordings and a soloist in the premier of an oratorio based on music from the film Warriors of Virtue. An interesting challenge was presented by his participation in a “Reader’s Digest condensed version” of Wagner’s Ring Cycle singing sections of the various tenor roles, Siegfried, Siegmund, Loge and Froh, all in the same evening!

Recent work has included Christmastide for unaccompanied SATB Choir for The San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Romanze for solo piano for pianist Grace Baugh-Bennet, Singing Sweet which completes his three movement work, The Wintergreen Suite, for the Ceruti Chamber Players of Louisville, Kentucky. Other engagements of note include: a piano reduction for Kareem Roustom’s Violin Concerto No. 2, two piano arrangements for composer Su Lian Tan of her Autumn Lute-Song and Concerto for Piccolo, both of which will be featured on a soon to be released recording. Ms. Tan also commissioned a concert band arrangement of her Sheridan Adventure for military band. Biggs also engaged with several organizations to create new arrangements for various vocal ensembles of his Agnus Dei, an earlier commission for solo voice and organ based on Handel’s "Ombra mai fu."