James A. Goins

James is a member of BMI, The Dramatist Guild of America, The American Composers Forum, The Playwrights Center, The National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc., Composers Diversity Collective, Theatre West, The Society of Composers & Lyricist, and the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. He is the Executive Director of the Laity Institute of the Arts, a Private Arts Foundation which teaches the visual and performing arts to children and adults. He is also an accomplished playwright and composer. He learned to hone his skills in musical theatre through New Musicals Inc. formerly the Academy for New Musical Theatre. He studied music under Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated composers such as Gerald Fried (Roots, Roots: The Next Generation, Star Trek, Napoleon, and Josephine) Thomas Richard Sharp (When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers, Aladdin, Little Mermaid) Jerry Grant (Quantum Leap, Hired to Kill, Hunter) and composition under Dr. Russel Steinberg one of America's leading Neo-Classical composer, conductor and music educators. He was also the subject of an original autobiographical television pilot written by Jeffrey Alan Fiskin and produced by Linda Obst and Stacey Sher called "Homeboyz" dealing with the care and nurturing of hardened gang members and student dropouts in Watts and South-Central Los Angeles in the 1990s. He has written a TV Sci-Fi pilot (The Guardian) and a TV Drama pilot which he adapted into a feature-length screenplay called "2 Much 4 Words" for VEL Films his indie film company. He has released four CDs and a long-awaited concept recording of "This Time and Age" A New Rock Musical. (Think Jesus Christ Superstar meets LOTR) which in his words is his "artistic love letter to Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice's seminal work." James has a BA in Theatre from California State University Dominguez Hills. He later attended UCLA where he received his Teaching Credential and completed his training in Film Scoring from UCLA's Film Scoring program. He also holds an Executive MBA from Grand Canyon University. He has been directly or indirectly involved in the entertainment industry for over 30 years.