Austin College

Faculty Member, Music

Assistant Professor of Theory/Composition

About

John McGinn received his undergraduate music degree from Harvard University and his doctorate in composition from Stanford University in 1999. Among his teachers are such noted composers as Jonathan Harvey, Leon Kirchner, Ivan Tcherepnin, and John Adams. His works have won several honors including two BMI awards, and have been performed at colleges and festivals nationwide. His Score for Score for 20 players was premiered by the Inscape Chamber Orchestra of Bethesda, MD in October 2009. Other recent premieres include Without a Net (2008) for solo piano performed by the composer at several MA venues, A Tad Low Strung (2006) for viola and piano with violist Peter Sulski with performances in MA, MD and TX (CMS Conference 2010), Spit and Polish (2006) for horn and string quartet by hornist John Peiffer and KCO members on a Kennedy Center Millennium Stage concert, and a recording of The Clarinet in the Machine (2006) for nine clarinets by the Gennusa Clarinet Camerata (MD). As an arranger, McGinn has created piano reductions of several large-scale works including John Adams’ Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, Gnarly Buttons and Violin Concerto and Christopher Rouse’s Pulitzer-winning Trombone Concerto, all for publication by Boosey & Hawkes. As a pianist and music director, McGinn has performed throughout the United States and Europe and appeared on more than a dozen commercial recordings, including two recent The Shakespeare Concerts CDs (Albany Records) and a critically acclaimed solo album, The 20th Century Piano (AmCam). After a number of years teaching at Clark University in Worcester, MA, McGinn joined the music faculty of Austin College in 2008.

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