cindy mctee
biographical summary
Hailed by the Houston Chronicle as a composer whose music reflects a charging, churning celebration of the musical and cultural energy of modern-day America, Cindy McTee (b. 1953 in Tacoma, WA) brings to the world of concert music a fresh and imaginative voice.
The Washington Post likewise characterized her work as unmistakably American-sounding, composed with craftsmanship and a catholic array of influences across several centuries. There’s also a polished gleam about her colors, according to the Detroit Free Press, as well as an inventive approach to form and a respect for tradition.
Cindy McTee has received numerous awards for her music, most significantly: a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, a Composers Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Music Alive Award from Meet The Composer and the League of American Orchestras, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's third annual Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award, and a BMI Student Composers Award. She was also winner of the 2001 Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition.
The works of Cindy McTee have received performances by leading ensembles in important venues throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall on five separate occasions. Among the many ensembles to have performed her music are: the Aspen Festival Orchestra, the Berner Symphonieorchester, the Boulder Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Louisville Orchestra, the Maryland Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the North Texas and Dallas Wind Symphonies, The Orchestra Now, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Orquestra Simfonica Illes Balears, the Pacific Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the President's Own U.S. Marine Band, the RTE National Symphony Orchestra (Dublin), the Showa Wind Symphony, Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra, the United States Army Field Band, the United States Coast Guard Band, the United States Navy Band, Voices of Change, the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Buffalo, China, Helsinki, Moscow, Rhode Island, and Rochester, as well as the Symphony Orchestras of Baltimore, Bern, Billings, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Flagstaff, Ft. Worth, Hartford, Hawaii, Houston, Indianapolis, Nashville, Novosibirsk, Omaha, Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, San Antonio, Seattle, Shanghai, St. Louis, Toronto, and Sydney.
Cindy McTee enjoyed a 30-year teaching career alongside her activities as a composer – 3 years at Pacific Lutheran University and 27 years at the University of North Texas where she retired as Regents Professor Emerita in 2011. Later that year, she married conductor, Leonard Slatkin. Their principal place of residence is in Saint Louis, Missouri.
(Updated 10.9.22)
