Composer, arranger and president of Band Geek Dad Music, Justin Marshall Riley was born in Milwaukee and raised in Madison, Wisconsin. After graduating from Madison Memorial High School in 2001 he attended the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in music education. There, he studied trombone with Brian Martz, conducting with Scott Teeple, composition with Dr., Charles Rochester Young and met the love of his life, Kristi.

Justin's educational interests include folk music and music literacy. He has studied with Dr. John Feierabend, author of First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege, both of which use folk music as the building blocks for music literacy. Justin has also had training in music perception and cognition with Marianne Ploger, author of The Ploger Method.

Justin taught band and general music in Wisconsin public schools for 6 years, spending the majority of those years working in a small-school band program where he became interested in Flex-band arrangements for schools with limited instrumentation. Under his direction, the 5-8 band program grew from 28 students to over 70.

Justin continues to make music on his trombone, performing in several church services each year at St. John's Lutheran in Jefferson and other services in the area.

Justin has experience in video production and co-produced his own television series in middle school and high school. After teaching, Justin enjoyed an 8-year career working in local broadcast television, which seemed like a dream come true.

Justin has composed and arranged sheet music for piano, wind band, organ, and chamber ensembles and has produced original music for several short films and video games. He lives with his wife, 2 children, 2 dogs and 1 cat in Jefferson where he tries to keep up with the weeds in his large garden in the summer.

Justin hopes that the music that comes out of Band Geek Dad will bring joy to its participants and glory to our God.