Background
He is the son of William Thomas McKinley.
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Elliott McKinley
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University of Michigan.
Career
Elliott Miles McKinley’s music has been performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Commissions include those from the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the SOLI Chamber Music Ensemble, the Czechoslovakian Philharmonic Chamber Music Society, the Duquesne University Contemporary Ensemble, and the Martinu String Quartet. McKinley has been the recipient of a BMI Student Composer Award, an American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers composition award, a fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and several grants from Meet the Composer.
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he received a Bachelor of Music degree in jazz studies and composition from New England Conservatory of Music a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Michigan, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Minnesota.
His music has been described as inspired by jazz and yet "thoroughly self-assured as he twists and bends the orchestral idiom into exciting new shapes." A review of his string quartets recorded on the MMC label states that "..the strength of McKinley"s music lies in his lively rhythms and elastic melodies, and these impressive works show a composer mastering his medium with consummate craft and a fertile, almost improvisational, imagination." In general, his music is marked by an economy of expression that may be founded on the works by Anton Webern and other miniaturists, though McKinley"s musical grammar is not dependent on the dodecaphonic idiom. McKinley is currently an Assistant Professor of Music Composition and Theory at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island.
