The Kotas Project

Cindy McTee

Cindy McTee was born on February 20, 1953 in Tacoma Washington. McTee received her BFA in composition from Pacific Lutheran University under the tutelage of  David Robbins and Thomas Clark.  She also met Krzysztof Penderecki at Pacific and would later study with him in Poland at the Cracow Academy of music. McTee earned her masters at Yale University under the instruction of Jacob Druckman and Bruce MacCombie and her PhD at the University of Iowa with Richard Hervig.

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McTee taught at Pacific Lutheran University for three years before accepting a position at the University of North Texas College of music in 1984. McTee is a fellow at UNT’s Institute for the advancement of the arts as well as a Regents Professor. From 1995 to 2000 McTee served as the Chair of the Division of Composition Studies. In 1992 and 2002 Mctee received an award from the the American Academy of Arts and Letters. McTee also received a Fulbright Fellowship in 1990, a composer fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1994, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2001. McTee won the Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition in 2001 and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s third annual Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award in 2009. In 2002 McTee won a Music Alive Award from Meet the Composer.