Elliott Miles McKinley

Elliott Miles McKinley, American Composer

Life and Work
Elliott Miles McKinley’s music has been performed in various venues in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Commissions include those from the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the SOLI Chamber Music Ensemble, the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Music Society, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Duquesne University Contemporary Ensemble, and the Martinu String Quartet. His works have also been featured on several international festivals, including the Mid-American Center for the Arts & Music Festival at Bowling Green State University, and the Olomouc Spring Festival in Olomouc, Czech Republic. McKinley has been the recipient of a BMI Student Composer Award, an ASCAP composition award, a fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and several grants from Meet the Composer.

McKinley, born 1969 in New Haven, Connecticut, received a Bachelor of Music degree in jazz studies and composition from New England Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Michigan. His teachers include John McNiel in jazz performance studies, Thomas Oboe Lee, Malcolm Peyton, George Wilson, Michael Daugherty, and William Bolcom. McKinley is currently pursuing a doctorate in music composition from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, studying with Alex Lubet, Douglas Geers, and David Gompper.

Major works
String Quartet No. 5 (2005)
Chamber Sinfonietta (In the Darkness of Winter) (2005) for chamber orchestra
String Quartet No. 4(2001)
String Quartet No. 3 (2000)
Pictures of Prague (1996) for eleven instruments
Symphony for Four Players (1996) for clarinet, violin, violoncello, and piano
April - a meditation for orchestra (1994)
Summer Portraits (1993) a concerto for percussion and chamber ensemble