John Newsome has been a music educator for almost 17 years in the public school systems. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Instrumental Music from Troy University in Troy, Alabama, and is currently working on his Master's Degree there. He has taught elementary school beginning band, middle school band, and high school band in rural school systems in south and middle Georgia. He has composed and arranged music for all of his band programs throughout his career, which have played at Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, on the deck of the U.S.S. Yorktown in Charleston, South Carolina, and on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. He is currently the band director at Fitzgerald High School in Fitzgerald, Georgia.