Music, custom designed
for your group
Welcome to BillCatesmusic.org, where music comes to life! Explore a world of compositions and carefully crafted arrangements for church, school, and community ensembles, each designed to inspire and uplift. Discover the unique style of writing and orchestration that defines Bill Cates' work.
Creating custom music for every group and ensemble
Bill Cates creates original compositions and custom arrangements (suited for your group specifically) for a variety of settings, from church and community choirs with organ/piano accompaniments, to full orchestrations for church and community groups. His music is known for its accessibility, emotional depth, and exciting arrangements. If you don't have the perfect piece for your group, Bill will create it for you!
Meet Bill Cates, ASCAP
With decades of experience as a music director, conductor, educator and composer/arranger, Bill brings a wealth of knowledge and creativity to every piece he writes.
Bill began his composing career at the age of fourteen (14) when he wrote his Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, and won second (2nd) place in the Central Kentucky Composition Contest. Attending Bowling Green High School, (KY) he studied with the most prolific march composer of all time: Cecil Karrick. He wrote popular arrangements for the school's pep, concert and marching bands. While in high school, Bill played principal clarinet in the Bowling Green, Southern Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, and was awarded a full academic scholarship to Western Kentucky University where he completed his Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Music Education, and Master of Music degrees, (Magna Cum Laude) while studying with noted composers Bennie Beach, Howard Carpenter and David Livingston. Bill was the first person at WKU to receive a Theory and Composition degree, composing two (2) major works as his thesis. He received the Franz J. Strahm Award for Most Outstanding Member of the WKU Big Red Marching Band in 1974.
Bill taught music in the Kentucky public school system for three (3) years, then went into business. Always involved in local church evangelism as a speaker and composer, he spent some 40+ years directing church choirs and orchestral ensembles, often providing the music for his groups. Now retired from every-week church music directing, he writes and arranges almost exclusively sacred music, having joined ASCAP in 2014. He resides with his wife Kathy in the Forest Oaks CC (Greensboro. NC) area, has three (3) grown daughters and seven (7) grandchildren.