Award-winning composer and educator Cindy McTee has been hailed by the Houston Chronicle as a composer whose music reflects a “charging, churning celebration of the musical and cultural energy of modern-day America.” 

Over her career, McTee has garnered a number of awards for her music, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s third annual Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award; a Music Alive Award from Meet The Composer and the League of American Orchestras; two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; a Guggenheim Fellowship; a Fulbright Fellowship; a Composers Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; and a BMI Student Composers Award. 

Throughout her career, McTee focused on both composition and education. After 27 years teaching at the University of North Texas, McTee retired in 2011 as a Regents Professor Emerita. 
           
“The title, Circuits, is meant to characterize several important aspects of the work’s musical language,” writes McTee in her own notes. “[There is] a strong reliance upon circuitous structures such as ostinatos; the use of a formal design incorporating numerous, recurring short sections; and the presence of an unrelenting, kinetic energy achieved through the use of 16th notes at a constant tempo of 152 beats per minute.

“The inclusion of jazz elements and the playful manipulation of musical materials using syncopation, sudden transposition, and juxtaposition are also characteristic of the work.”   

In a recent email, McTee added, “Circuits is by far my most performed work, having traveled widely from St. Louis to New York, London to Sydney, Australia, and now to Denver. It was also recorded by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and released on the Naxos label in 2013.
           
“Someone once said – I don’t know who – that music either dances or sings. Circuits is definitely a dance piece with its driving pulse and electric tempo.

"The music of Circuits comes from many places. It owes a lot to Steve Reich, Christopher Rouse, Leslie Bassett, and Charlie Parker. Many of the materials are inspired by jazz, the music I first played as a child.”