David Scott Gantz

David Scott Gantz is thrilled to be teaching music at Heritage Elementary School in Glendale, Arizona.

He is honored to have 7 of his choir songs distributed by Lorenz over the last two years.

For the last 26 years, David has taught music to children in pre-school through the 12th grade.

David holds a Master of Music in Music Education from the University of Florida and a Bachelor of Music from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.  Additionally, he studied voice, songwriting, lyric-writing, theory, and choral conducting at Berklee College of Music and at Florida State University.  David wrote Songwriting: A Guide for Teachers based on his studies at the Berklee College of Music. 

His mentors included lyric/songwriting teachers Pat Pattison and John Aldrich.

David's distinguished teachers also included past MENC president, Dr. Charles Hoffer, Dr. Russell Robinson, Dr. André Thomas, Dr. Paul Basler, Ron Burrichter, Dr. Peggy Dettweiler, Edward Brown, Dr. Nancy Boston, David Wingate, and Jeanne Anne-Teal.

Highlights of his career have been teaching for Imagine Schools, the Arts Academy at Estrella Mountain in Tolleson reaching 1,300 students in grades K–8, and music team-teaching with Hillsborough County Schools, Florida.  In 2016 and 2017, David was guest clinician for the Pendergast Honor Choir Festival where students sang his original songs, including “Can We Be Better Than We Are?,” “All I Can Do Is My Best,” and “We Will Sing.”

Since 2018, 25 of David's character education songs have been recorded by members and alumni of the One Voice Children's Choir in Utah.  Masa Fukuda, director of the One Voice Children's Choir, is his exclusive arranger and producer.

David specializes in writing character education/graduation songs and is known for founding the Be Kind Children's Children Choir on YouTube featuring singers performing his original music in Masa's studio.  David's original songs are written specifically with positive messages having themes with the purpose of raising students’ self-esteem, achieving their personal best, and contributing to making the world a better place.