Gary Shields is an Atlanta-born/Los Angeles-based, composer, pianist, music educator, and arts administrator, composing concert and commercial music for theatre, film, puppetry arts, and other media. Gary has received commissions from the Nashville Public Library, the Huntington Library, the Dorfman-Katahn duo, and contributed music for director Matthew Cherry's film, The Last Fall.

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Gary received his M.M. in Composition from the University of Southern California and his B.M. in Music Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt University. While a graduate student at USC, Gary was a mentee of GRAMMY and Emmy award winning composer Thomas Newman and spent two summers assisting students in composer Christopher Lennertz's Film & Video Game Scoring Track at GRAMMY Camp. Gary studied composition with National Medal of Arts recipient Morten Lauridsen, Frank Ticheli, Erica Muhl, Michael Kurek, and Michael Rose.

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Gary is also a passionate arts advocate, working to ensure access to the amazing benefits of music and arts education. Gary is currently the Deputy Director for the Foundation arm of the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) and has previously worked for the GRAMMY Foundation and Recording Academy, Education Through Music-Los Angeles, the Organization of American Kodály Educators, and the Nashville Symphony. Gary is a former piano and composition faculty of Cornerstone Music Conservatory in West LA.