McTee's Symphony No. 1 to premiere at Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall

Under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, the National Symphony Orchestra will perform Symphony No. 1: Ballet for Orchestra by Cindy McTee, Regents Professor of music, during its fall concert season.

The four-movement, 27-minute
work will receive its world premiere at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Oct. 24, and its New York debut at Carnegie Hall Oct. 30.

Commissioned by the NSO and Slatkin, the orchestra's music director, Symphony No. 1: Ballet for Orchestra was made possible by the John and June Hechinger Commissioning Fund for New Orchestral Works. McTee also received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a one-semester faculty development leave from UNT to work on the composition.

"I've worked on this piece of music for two years. It was a labor of love, and I am thrilled for the opportunity to hear it performed by the likes of Leonard Slatkin and the NSO," McTee says.

Inspired by Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, the events of Sept. 11 and jazz, to name just a few of the many influences, this eclectic and kinetic work follows McTee's thoughts about music's roots being planted firmly in dance. In it, she also explores the writings of Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung, who felt that creative energy sprang from the tension between the conscious and unconscious, thought and feeling, objectivity and subjectivity, and mind and body.

"The integration and reconciliation of opposing elements have become important aspects of my work," she says.

McTee's compositions, which, according to music critic Charles Ward, reflect a "charging, churning celebration of the musical and cultural energy of modern-day America," have been performed by leading orchestras, bands and chamber ensembles in the United States, Japan, South America and Europe.

"Thus, the integration and reconciliation of opposing elements have become important aspects of my work," she says.

McTee's compositions, which according to music critic Charles Ward reflect a "charging, churning celebration of the musical and cultural energy of modern-day America," have been performed by leading orchestras, bands and chamber ensembles in the United States, Japan, South America and Europe.

Past awards for McTee include a Fulbright Fellowship in 1990, two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1992 and 2002) and a Composers Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994.

McTee has taught composition at UNT since 1984. A native of Washington state, she earned her bachelor's degree from Pacific Lutheran University in 1975, her master's degree from the Yale School of Music in 1978, and her doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1981. Her primary teacher was respected Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.

BY KELLEY REESE kreese@unt.edu

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