Guitar Chamber Music Press

Our Story

Guitar Chamber Music Press (GCMP) is devoted to publishing music composed and arranged for guitar and the guitar in ensemble.

Today’s GCMP catalogue contains a multitude of scores for guitar including works for solo, duet, trio, quartet, ensemble, chamber music and more. We have original works by numerous composers including Dr. Glenn Caluda, Dr. Dave Burdick, Dr. Scott Borg, Dr. Christopher Alexander, Dr. Kevin Vigil, Dr. Thomas Tudek, Dr. Mark Tonelli, Dr. Larry Lipkis, Ronn McFarlane, Owen Middleton, John Arnold, Anna Inozemceva, Wesley Hixson, Ruben Delgado, Nate Jackson, Garth Baxter, Keith Calmes, Vasily Antipov, Anita Thomas, Jonathan Marshall, Steve Vazquez and Manley and Will Mallard. Similarly, we have numerous arrangements dating from the Renaissance to the present. We continually update the catalogue as we add new and unpublished works to our website. GCMP works closely with our composers and arrangers to produce high quality scores and parts.

Manley Mallard founded GCMP in 1990 just before reaching tenure as a faculty member at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. Recently retired after 29 years of teaching, Professor Mallard has dedicated his life and livelihood to teaching, performing, writing and arranging music for guitar and guitar in ensemble. His love of music, passion for the guitar and the desire to share it with others are Mallard’s primary motivators. Creating Guitar Chamber Music Press seemed a natural extension of his career in music and an opportunity to give back to the guitar community with new and arranged music published for guitar and guitar in ensemble.

Mallard has been transcribing and arranging music since his early years in graduate school at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

“At that time, I had half a dozen students in my home guitar studio from which I formed a guitar ensemble. This was another learning and music making opportunity for them and an opportunity for me to reinforce musical and technical issues through group performance. As they grew and became more proficient, it became clear that I had to challenge them with music that was even more challenging and yet spoke to them in a more popular context. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s there was not a lot of published repertoire for guitar ensemble from which to choose. This inspired me to arrange a number of works including Chrysanthemum by Scott Joplin and Chariots of Fire by Vangelis.  As the saying goes ‘see a need, fill a need’. I have been transcribing and arranging ever since. The difference, of course, is that then it was pen and manuscript paper and now I enter notation directly into a computer software program.

My reason for transcribing and arranging has always been and still is integral to the overall improvement of musicianship of each student. Invariably, guitar students come to college with less music training than a typical band or orchestra student. Therefore, it is always a game of ‘catch up’ for the guitarists and guitar ensemble serves a vital role in getting them on an even playing field with other students in the music program.  It is and has been my mission to expose guitar students to a broader spectrum of music, music that they will not perform as a soloist and will challenge them to improve as music readers, ensemble performers and musicians in general. While the Guitar Ensemble repertoire has vastly improved, there is still a need for more new music, transcriptions and arrangements.”

“The ineffable quality of music and the joy of sharing and learning with my students continue to inspire me. I see music as a tool for expression, self-awareness and change.”  ~ Manley Mallard