Lyndell Leatherman

Lyndell Leatherman was born into a Nazarene parsonage in southeast Kansas. He began piano lessons at age eight, studying with his mother Wilma, a piano teacher and church musician. By the age of thirteen he was playing regularly in the Green Rock (now Colona), Illinois church where his father was then pastoring.

While attending Olivet Nazarene University, Kankakee, Illinois, he was privileged to study piano with Stephen Nielson and organ with the late Ovid Young, two keyboard artists who comprised the renowned keyboard duo known worldwide as Nielson and Young. After earning a degree in church and choral music at ONU, he continued his education with graduate studies in music theory and composition at Illinois State University, Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, where his principal mentor was Panamanian born Roque Cordero (who had studied composition under Ernst Krenek and conducting under Dimitri Mitropoulos).

Since 1977 Lyndell has been immersed in sacred and educational music publishing—as an editor, composer, arranger, orchestrator, and accompanist in the Kansas City metro area. During this time he has served in the music ministries of several different denominations, with roles including minister of music, orchestra director, organist, pianist, or vocal section leader. In addition, he enjoys collaborating in school and community musical theatre productions. For a hobby he collects—and tinkers with—reed organs, accordions, and player pianos.