Composer Jonathan B. McNair's career has embraced the creation and performance of
new music, community outreach, academic teaching, publishing, and church music.
He earned the Bachelor of Music, with honors, at Appalachian State University; the
Master of Music at Southern Methodist University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts at
The Cleveland Institute of Music. Dr. McNair studied composition with Donald Erb,
Sydney Hodkinson, and Scott R. Meister, and has participated in master-classes with
internationally known composers including Jennifer Higdon, Nils Vigeland, Earle Brown,
George Crumb, Richard Felciano, David Felder, Lukas Foss, Karel Husa, Philippe Manoury,
and Bernard Rands.
Dr. McNair's music has been performed by members of the Cleveland Orchestra, Sirius
Ensemble, Myriad Ensemble, Epicycle Ensemble, the Wichita New Music Ensemble, soloists
and ensembles at June In Buffalo, Spivey Hall Children's Choir, the Smoky Mountain
Chorale, and ensembles at universities, colleges, and churches around the country.
He has also had performances in Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland. His music was featured
at the festival Little Now Music at Brevard College, and he had two new works premiered
at the gala opening festivities of the 21st Century Waterfront in Chattanooga. He
has also had music broadcast via radio, represented on CD by Capstone Records, and
published by Pilgrim Press.
He has won affirmation from audiences and performers, and from critics in Fanfare magazine, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Buffalo News, the Chattanooga Free Press, and in the journals Worship and The Hymn. Organizations awarding him commissions and prizes include the American Composers
Forum, Chattanooga Downtown Partnership, Chattanooga Clarinet Choir, Choral Arts of
Chattanooga, Spivey Hall and the YWCO, Allied Arts of Chattanooga, Ballet Tennessee,
Chattanooga Symphony core players, the Percussive Arts Society.
McNair was twice chosen as composer-in-residence for the Viva Voce! Choral Camp, and
was a composer in the Faith Partners residency program of the American Composers Forum.
He was chosen in 2004 and 2005 as a resident artist by I-Park Artist's Enclave (East
Haddam, Connecticut). He has also served as resident composer for Ballet Tennessee,
who commissioned, choreographed, and premiered five new works by him in their Millenium
Nutcracker production, December 2000 (repeated 2001). He is actively involved in organizing
performances of contemporary music in academic and community settings through the
biennial Contemporary Music Symposium at UTC.
Dr. McNair is currently U. C. Foundation Associate Professor at The University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he serves as Coordinator of Music Theory and artistic
director of the biennial Contemporary Music Symposium.