Composer and conductor Steven Paxton is the founder and chief editor of Creative Spirit Music Publications.  He served on the music faculty at Santa Fe University of Art and Design, where he served as chair of the Contemporary Music program from 2003 to 2014, taught music theory, composition, and directed the University Chorus and the new music ensemble, Collegium XXI. Dr. Paxton has taught at both the college and high school levels, and before coming to Santa Fe was chair of the Music Theory/Composition division in the School of Music at Texas Tech University. His former students are active as composers, performers, sound designers, inter-arts collaborators, teachers, and musical entrepreneurs throughout the United States and around the world. Dr. Paxton was a 1988 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Composers Fellowship and has also received fellowships and commissions from The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, the American College Theater Festival, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Lubbock Youth Symphony Orchestra, 20th Century Unlimited of Santa Fe, and the Nevada Music Educators Association. He has worked extensively in collaborative art forms, especially as a composer, sound designer, and musical director for the stage. From 1988 to 1994, he was composer-in-residence for the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, and his opera, Bellini’s War, was premiered at Texas Tech University in 2001.