Mike McFerron

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 production and recording 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 Kansas City Kansas Community College. McFerron 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. Kristín Jónína Taylor’s recording of his Piano Sonata #2 was a finalist in the 2025 American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award and received two silver medals by Global Music Awards. Loving Is, a chamber opera by McFerron, premiered at Carnegie Hall by the Remarkable Theater Brigade, and his solo piano work, Apprehension of the Eternal Will was premiered at Carnegie Hall by Matthew McCright in 2019. Perspectives for orchestra was awarded first prize in the Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition, was a recipient of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s “First Hearing” program, was awarded an honorable distinction in the Masterprize International Composition Competition, and was an honorable mention in the ASCAP 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 and has subsequently been performed in concert over 150 times. McFerron was chosen the winner of the Cantus Commissioning/Residency Program, and he was a recipient of the 2021 LYNX Project commissioning project and 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, Manchester New Music Festival, Ball State University New Music Festival, Florida State University New Music Festival, Spark Conference, 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 been commissioned to write music for Kristín Jónína Taylor (piano), Matthew McCright (piano), Linda Chatterton (flute and piano), Adrianne Honnold (saxophone and electronics), LYNX Project (voice and piano), Vox Novus (electronics), Cantus (male chorus), SUNY-Oswego (orchestra and choir), Kristín Taylor (piano), GéNIA (piano and electronics), Andrew Spencer (percussion), Julia Bentley (voice and piano), the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers’ Forum (chamber music), Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City (piano and electronics), Lewis University (choir), Sumner Academy of Arts and Science (chamber music), and four times by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra among others.