Mike McFerron is a professor of music and composer-in-residence at Lewis University in the Chicago area. The chair of the Department of Music at Lewis University, McFerron teaches music composition, theory, and directs the music technology program. He is founder and co-director of the Electronic Music Midwest festival. He received a DMA in composition from the Conservatory of Music—University of Missouri at Kansas City where his primary teachers were James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Gerald Kemner. A native of Oklahoma, McFerron also studied composition with Ray E. Luke. He has been on the faculty of Hong Kong Baptist University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and the Kansas City Kansas Community College, and he has served as resident composer at the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers' Forum in Bennington, Vt. McFerron serves on the board of the directors for the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra and is a past Chair of the Executive Committee for the Society of Composers, Inc.
McFerron's music has received critical acclaim and recognition. Loving Is, a chamber opera by McFerron, premiered at Carnegie Hall by the Remarkable Theater Brigade. Perspectives for orchestra was awarded first prize in the Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition, part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's "First Hearing" program, was awarded an honorable distinction in the Masterprize International Composition Competition, and an honorable mention in the Rudolf Nissim Prize. His Torrid Mix: Featuring DJ Jazzy King and Master L.T. was awarded the first prize in the 2006 Forecast Music Composition Competition. McFerron was chosen the winner of the Cantus Commissioning/Residency Program, and he was a recipient of the 2005 CCF Abelson Art Song Commission. His music was a finalist in the 1st International Electroacoustic Music Contest – CEMJKO, the 2004 Confluencias Electronic Miniatures II International Competition, the 2005 Truman State/MACRO Composition Competition, The 2005 American Modern Ensemble Composition Competition, the 2002 Swan Composition Competition, the 1999 Salvatore Martirano Composition Contest, and the 1997 South Bay Master Chorale Choral Composition Contest. McFerron has been a composers fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Ucross, June in Buffalo, and the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers' Forum in Bennington, Vt. His music has been featured on numerous SCI National Conferences, SEAMUS National Conferences, the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Brooklyn College Conservatory's Electroacoustic Music Festival, the MANTIS (UK) festival, ÉuCue “Plugged Festival” (Montreal), University of Richmond’s 3rd Practice Festival, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Denison University TUTTI Festival, Ball State University New Music Festival, Florida State University New Music Festival, Spark Conference, Annual Florida International Electroacoustic Music Festival, Spring in Havanna, the MAVerick Festival, several SCI regional conferences, and concerts and radio broadcasts across the U.S. and throughout Europe. He has written music for Cantus, SUNY-Oswego, GéNIA, Andrew Spencer, Julia Bentley, the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers' Forum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Lewis University, Sumner Academy of Arts and Science, and three times by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra among others.
McFerron's music can be heard on numerous commercial recordings as well as on his website at http://www.bigcomposer.com.
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