"Mahogany music..."

- Gabriela Frank, composer

"Take McClellan's music as a reminder and a gentle
admonition that no matter how ancient the music,
the door to reinterpretation is never shut. McClellan
pulls new life from centuries-old choral styles, drawing
on their native spiritual power and recasting them in
the haunting arrangements of the new avant-garde."

- Editor, Download.com

"This music is both smart and beautiful."

- Kimberly Dunn Adams, conductor

"...a vivid sense of atmosphere and
narrative force...the audience loved it."

- Michael Miller, Berkshire Review

Gather Me (voice or choir and strings) info

This Ravelled Dust excerpt (choir, solos, chamber ens.) info

Nunc dimittis (SATB choir) info


This Nunc dimittis was selected for publication in the new NCCO Choral Music Series and was featured in a presentation during the NCCO conference on November 5, 2011

Buy my music on

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Plans are underway for the U.S. premiere of my nuclear-age cantata, This Ravelled Dust, inside the decommissioned Hanford B nuclear reactor. See link for info.

Learn more about the cantata in my NewMusicBox article, and in this very perceptive blog post.

Looking for Composition Lessons? I currently teach several private students, both in person and remote/online.
Write to me at the email address at the top of this screen!

UPCOMING and RECENT, 2011 - 2012

Dreaming in Darkness (SATB) will be heard at the ACDA Eastern Division conference in the Contemporary Literature reading session led by Miguel Felipe. February 2012

Gone Today (orch) will receive its third performance on April 28, 2012, with the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, led by Bruce Polay

I'll be writing the music for a new film, Noise, by Persian translator, filmmaker and artist Zahra Partovi

I'll be writing a new work for choir and Highland pipes, for the Manhattan College choir and a soloist from the college pipe band

The Gyre (baritone/harp) received its second performance on January 29, 2012 at Andrea Clearfield’s Salon in Philadelphia.

On December 18, 2011 the choir of High Street Church in Muncie, IN led by Andrew Crow, premiered Psalm 71: The Generations (SATB/org), commissioned for the church's 175th anniversary

The Toronto Chamber Choir, led by Mark Vuorinen, premiered my Christmas carol Sweetly Sleeping (SATB) on December 3

The Yale Camerata performed Lighten Our Darkness (SATB), my Evensong Collect, on their Hartford concert November 13

The composer's/conductor's collective C4 performed The Woman Turns Herself into a Fish (SSA choir) on November 17 and 19 in NYC

OTHER THINGS OF INTEREST

Planning for Christmas or other holidays?
Peruse my liturgical music here, including these choral anthems for Christmas / Epiphany:
They Worship Without Words (3 Kings/Epiphany)
O Antiphons + Come Emmanuel (Advent hymn)

The wonderful poetry of my collaborator Robin Muir-Miller is available online for the first time

El Salto, which debuted in NYC last year at the NY Society for Ethical Culture, will return soon... stay tuned

Buy Music by Heart, the paperless hymnal, for use at home or at church (includes songs I wrote)

The Highland Bagpipe: Music, History, Tradition a recent book from Ashgate (I wrote chapter 13); also read my original thesis, now also e-published at the Piobaireachd Society

A non-musical item...National Geographic Magazine selected my photo of the NYC Armory and Folk Art Museum's amazing quilt show for April 18th's "Daily Dozen"