CJ Barrow is a composer and educator based in Bloomington, Indiana. He currently serves as a music designer for Synced Up Designs and Fannin Musical Productions, with his most notable clients including Music City Mystique, Music City Drum Corps, and the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps. In high demand as a marching arts designer, he regularly works with over 40 different clients each year. His reach extends internationally, having his music performed by hundreds of ensembles around the world as a composer, sound designer, and arranger. CJ is also honored to be an Innovative Percussion artist.

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CJ earned his MM in Music Scoring for Visual Media at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, studying primarily with Larry Groupé and Steven Wayne Thomas and Norbert Herber. Prior to this, he earned his BM in Music Education at the University of Tennessee at Martin, graduating summa cum laude after studying with Julie Hill, John Oelrich, Bill Waterman, Johnathan Vest, among many other esteemed faculty.

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From 2017 to 2020, he served as the director of bands at East Robertson Middle/High School in Cross Plains, TN. In his time at East Robertson, the high school concert band earned numerous superior ratings, and was invited to Tennessee State Concert Festival in 2020 for the first time in the program's history.

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From a young age, CJ was always inspired by music, taking lessons as early as age six in violin and later piano. At age twelve, he began his journey as a drummer and percussionist. While in high school, he performed in a number of honor ensembles as a percussionist in middle Tennessee including the Curb Youth Symphony in Nashville, TN.

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In 2009, CJ began composing and arranging music and sound design for various high school and university ensembles, honor bands, drum corps, and 8-time WGI world-champion, Music City Mystique. 

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In Summer 2014, CJ began his film and video game scoring career with the team from Toontown Infinite, a fan-made recreation of Toontown Online by Disney Interactive, as well as another fan-revamp of the MMORPG Free Realms Sunrise. He has also composed music for Flyover Zone with their virtual-reality Roman Chariot Racing game.

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CJ currently resides in Bloomington, Indiana with his incredible wife Hannah.

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Want to know more? Contact him!