User:Acustatic/sandbox/Stan DeWitt

Stan DeWitt is a musician, songwriter, director, educator and composer based in Southern California. He is best known as the Minister of Music of Grace First Presbyterian Church in Long Beach, and a co-producer with Derek O'Brien for the Sound Ministry Gurus production team.

Early Life and Education
Stan DeWitt was born in Denver, Colorado. His parents moved to California at the age of six months, and eventually settled in Fullerton, in north Orange County. He became involved in music at ten years old, and became immersed in music at Fullerton High School, where he played in the jazz band, sang in both choirs and starred in musicals. It was also at FUHS that Stan met Derek O'Brien and Frank Agnew. They formed their first band together.

After High School, Stan went to Fullerton College briefly before transferring to California State University, Long Beach, where he majored in music, earning a B.A. in guitar performance and an M.M. in choral conducting. While at CSULB, he studied with Frank Pooler. Frank became Stan's mentor, and after college, the two of them maintained a long and deep friendship until Pooler's passing in 2013.

Career
After graduating, Stan taught briefly at Cypress College, and at Coastline College where we taught for 26 years. He also had brief stints teaching at Long Beach City College and California State University, Long Beach. He worked as a film composer, most notably composing music for the films of Jose Sanchez-H. and Tina de Sanchez Datsko. Several of their collaborations were debuted on the Sundance Channel, and have been shown at film festivals around the world. One of the films won the Audience Award for “Best Short Film” at the Ibero-American Film Festival of Montreal.

Stan formed a contemporary folk group, the Woodbys, in 1992 with singer/guitarist Jab Kent and bassist Joe Lamanno. They released two albums and toured extensively on the west coast of the United States. After the band broke up, Stan recorded and released several solo records, including "Long Day's Journey" and "Bend", produced by Anthony Arvizu. Then in 2011, he co-produced "Bring Some Friends" for his band Moonshine alongside Derek O'Brien. O'Brien and DeWitt went on to produce recordings for Onward, Etc., Corrina Carter, Jellykka and many others. Stan also collaborated with Joshua Fischel for several Downtown Long Beach/Live After Five performances from 2014-16, and joined the Long Beach Music Council in 2015. Stan became the Minister of Music of Grace First Presbyterian Church in Long Beach in 2003. He formed the Long Beach Youth Chorus as Executive Director in 2017.

In 2020, right before the Coronavirus pandemic closed down theaters, DeWitt and O'Brien premiered "Silver Bullet: A Rock Opera" to great acclaim.