The RWS Music Company was founded in January of 2015 by renowned composer and music educator Robert W. Smith.
Dedicated to the publication of quality literature that connects with both musician and audience, RWS Music Company is committed to producing music of impeccable artistic and educational value.
Distributed exclusively by Alfred Music in Van Nuys, CA, RWS Music Company publications are available at your local music dealer as well as select dealers throughout Europe and Asia.
Leadership Team
Susan L. Smith
President/CEO
Paris Foreman
Marketing Director
Meet R. Paris Foreman
R. Paris Foreman is an Assistant Band Director & the Director of the Performing Arts Center at Biloxi High School in Biloxi, MS. Paris has a BA in Music Industry with a Minor in Theatre and a Masters in Business Management from Troy University. He received his Teaching Certification from The University of Mississippi. He joined the RWS Music Company as the Marketing Director in 2015.
As Captain Foreman in the United States Army, serving in the National Guard, Paris has served as an Infantry officer, a Company Commander in the Corps of Engineers, and multiple Brigade Staff positions including Battle Captain, Maneuver Liaison, and Assistant Plans Officer. He served multiple overseas assignments, anti-narcotics missions on the Southwest Border, and security missions in Washington DC following the January 6 insurrection.
Paris is an expert in brass pedagogy with teaching experience spanning three decades. He has served on DCI brass staffs including Brass Caption Head at Music City and Southwind. He currently serves as the Corps Director for the Memphis Blues.
Paris lives in D’iberville, MS with his Chihuahua Niña. In his free time he enjoys bodybuilding and riding his motorcycle. He is an avid fan of all the Tampa Bay sports teams and the UFC.
Kim Benson
Band Editor / Consultant
Meet Kim Benson
Kim Benson’s path to the music publishing industry started as she honed her expertise in public education with a distinguished career as an Iowa Bandmaster. Throughout her teaching career, Kim built and maintained respected programs in Concert, Jazz, and Marching Band, in large and small districts where she encouraged students from beginning band to college level to strive for excellence in all they do.
She then transitioned to a music industry career with publishing company C. L. Barnhouse Co., where she served as Senior Vice President and Editorial and Production Manager for nearly a decade. In January 2024, Kim embarked on a new journey, starting her own consulting and sub-contracting business, where she continues working with outstanding composers and distinguished companies worldwide. Kim’s passion for people, music, and education has made her a sought-after guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, composer, mentor, and consultant.
Kim’s professional journey has led her to RWS Music Co., where she is an integral part of the team and contributes her expertise and passion to the company’s success.
Savannah Smith
Board of Directors
Madison W. Smith
Board of Directors
Cyndee Hawkins
Technical Editor
Ben Hawkins
Orchestra Editor
Meet Ben Hawkins
Ben Hawkins is Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Ensembles at Transylvania University in Lexington, KY, where he has taught since 1985. At Transylvania, Dr. Hawkins conducts the Concert Band, Chamber Orchestra, Pep Band, and teaches courses in music theory, music education, and conducting. For eighteen years, he served as Program Director in Music. In addition, he has regularly taught in the Transylvania’s unique First Year Studies program, a foundational reading/writing/critical thinking course which the university requires of all students. Dr. Hawkins holds Transylvania’s Bingham Fellowship in Teaching Excellence. He serves as Music Director of the Central Kentucky Concert Band, a community band entering its 48th year of existence.
Prior to his tenure at Transylvania, Dr. Hawkins taught five years of band in grades 5-12 in Virginia and Texas. His arrangements have been performed by the United States Air Force Band and by numerous university and high school bands. He has served as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician throughout the United States, as well as in Mexico and Australia. Ben lives in Lexington with Cyndee, his wife of 41 years and a retired band director. They have two adult sons, Jay and Turner.
Mark Lortz
Band Editor
Meet Mark Lortz
Mark Lortz has earned accolades as a composer, arranger, performer, and educator. In 2011, he was appointed the first Stevenson University (Stevenson, MD) Director of Bands, and in 2017 was appointed to Director of Music, administering the entire music program and retaining his duties as Director of Bands. He has served as an adjunct Music Education Professor at McDaniel and Carroll Community Colleges. He is a Vic Firth Marching Percussion Specialist and Scholastic Educator, and brass arranger for the Drum Corps Associates Drum & Bugle Corps, The Reading Buccaneers. From 1996 to 2011, he was Fine Arts Department Chair and Band and Orchestra Director at Westminster High School in Westminster, MD. Under his leadership, Westminster’s Marching Band won several Bands of America Regional Marching Band Championship titles. Its music department was honored for Lortz’s exemplary music programs by the National Association for Music Education and the Maryland Music Educators Association and was a Grammy Signature School semifinalist. School Band & Orchestra magazine recognized Lortz as one of the “50 Directors Who Make a Difference.”
Dr. Lortz’s original music has premiered at The Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference, the Bands of America National Percussion Festival, and the College Band Directors National Association. “The Caw of the Wild,” his commissioned composition for the Baltimore Ravens NFL football team’s marching band, is performed at every Ravens home game. His music is published by Carl Fischer Music, FJH Music Company, Northeastern Music Publications, Peermusic, TRN, and Wingert-Jones music publisher. Lortz’s compositions have received awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and laudatory reviews in Gramophone and The Instrumentalist magazines. They also made Bandworld magazine’s Top 100 list of band compositions and sheet music company JW Pepper’s Editor’s Choice list. He arranges marching band music for high school marching bands throughout the United States. He has assisted in the design, direction, and preparation for the United States Army Field Band and Jazz Ambassadors Norwegian Military Tattoo performance and The United States Naval Academy Drum and Bugle Corps inter-academy championships. In addition to composing, Dr. Lortz adjudicates, lectures, and guest conducts honor bands, orchestras, and community ensembles throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
Dr. Lortz earned a Ph.D. in Music Education from Temple University and received a Boyer College of Music and Dance Fellowship. He has earned degrees in percussion performance, music education, and music composition from The Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. He was Associate Music Director and Principal Percussionist for the North American tour of Phantom of the Opera and Principal Percussionist with the international performing ensemble, The Dallas Brass. He has performed and recorded with premier orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony under David Zinman and Marin Alsop’s direction.
