Biography
Glenn McClure is a composer, speaker, and scholar. Glenn has dedicated himself to building artistic collaborations with rural folks, scientists, scholars, and musicians. His music emerges from community conversations on the environment, disability, and racial equality. He has served on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music, SUNY Geneseo and Paul Smith’s College.
Mr. McClure’s compositional work has driven partnerships between scientists and artists. He composed a work for choir and string quartet for the European Space Agency. He worked closely with scientists and mathematicians from the Rosetta Mission to transform orbital data into melodies and harmonies. He has given a musical voice to the ice of Antarctica, the solar eclipse, and rivers, lakes, and oceans around the world.
His music has been featured on several national broadcasts including a 2006 edition of National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” This story explored his partnership with bestselling author Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter, 1999) that resulted in The Starry Messenger: An Oratorio based on the Letters of Galileo’s Daughter for choir, lute, recorder and string quartet.
Mr. McClure’s acclaimed “Kyrie” from St. Francis in the Americas: A Caribbean Mass has returned to Carnegie Hall for three performances as well as multiple performances at Lincoln Center. His “Santo” was featured in the 2005 broadcast of Enter the Light, the CBS Christmas Special. Mr. McClure’s musical setting of “Cantico di Frate Sole” is featured in Francis of Assisi, The Great Courses, with lectures by Dr. William Cook and Dr. Ronald Herzman.
Mr. McClure has composed two full length operas. The world Music opera, Imoinda, is based on the neo slave narrative libretto of scholar Joan Anim-Addo and Promised Land: An Adirondack Folk Opera. He has written two children’s operas, Mio Nonno Galileo (based on the life of Galileo’s grandson) and Maria’s Lessons (based on the work of Italian educational reformer Maria Montessori).
Mr. McClure’s work is published by Earthsongs (www.earthsongsmus.com) and Roger Dean Publishers (www.lorenz.com). His choral works, written for mixed choir, Treble Choir, Men’s Choir, children’s choir and orchestra use European and non-European languages including Vietnamese, Lakota, and Nahuatl.
He lives in Northern New York with his wife, Paula.
Awards and Fellowships
Artist-in-Residence for the National Parks Arts Foundation at Hawaii Volcanos National Park where he worked with scientists to create a musical exploration of the volcanos.
He was awarded the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Fellowship. He traveled to Antarctica to compose music based upon the work of UCSD climate scientist Dr. Peter Bromirski.
He has since received the National Science Foundation I-Corps Grant that is devoted to exploring innovative applications of his sonification algorithm in a variety of industries.
He received the National Teaching Artist Fellowship (2008-9) by the Kennedy Center Office of Accesibility/VSA program that supports art making by adults and children with disabilities.
Mr. McClure recently received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts/Opera Division in partnership with Mountain Lake PBS for his new voting rights opera, Promised Land: An Adirondack Folk Opera.
He also received the Chancellor’s Award for Adjunct Teaching by the State University of New York, Obrien Award in Part-time Teaching (2014), and the Path Award for Promotion of Diversity (2013).
He received the Lenna Visiting Professorship at St. Bonaventure University.
Mr. McClure is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Continental Harmony Commission by the American Composers Forum.
Glenn’s Curriculum Vitae (pdf)