Dr. Edward R. Sims ’53 Distinguished Visiting Artist/Scholar for Music

The IUP Department of Music is honored to host the Dr. Edward R. Sims ’53 Distinguished Visiting Artist/Scholar for Music on an annual basis.

Thanks to a generous gift by alumnus Edward Sims, the Department of Music hosts an internationally-renowned artist for a residency each academic year. Sims Distinguished Artists regularly perform concerts, conduct IUP ensembles, give lectures, and teach master classes to IUP students.

In addition to naming a Distinguished Artist, the Department of Music is also able to host several Sims Fellows for smaller events throughout the year. Sims Fellows are regionally or nationally recognized musicians and scholars who perform and teach during short residencies on the IUP campus.

2022–23 Dr. Edward R. Sims ’53 Distinguished Visiting Artist/Scholar for Music

Leonard Slatkin and Cindy McTee

September 26–29, 2022

Residency Schedule

From leonardslatkin.com:

Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is music director laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, directeur musical honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon, conductor laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and principal guest conductor of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting throughout the world and is active as a composer, author, and educator.

Slatkin has received six Grammy awards and 35 nominations. His latest recordings are Jeff Beal’s The Paper Lined Shack on Supertrain Records and Slatkin Conducts Slatkin, a compilation of pieces written by generations of his musical family, including three of his own compositions, on Naxos Records. Other recent Naxos releases include works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, and Berlioz (with the ONL) and music by Copland, Rachmaninov, Borzova, McTee, and John Williams (with the DSO). In addition, he has recorded the complete Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky symphonies with the DSO (available online as digital downloads).

From cindymctee.com:

Cindy McTee has received numerous awards for her music, most significantly a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, a Composers Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Music Alive Award from Meet the Composer and the League of American Orchestras, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's third annual Elaine Lebenbom Memorial Award, and a BMI Student Composers Award. She was also the winner of the 2001 Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition.

The works of McTee have received performances by leading ensembles in important venues throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall on five separate occasions. Among the many ensembles to have performed her music are: the Aspen Festival Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Maryland Symphony, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the North Texas and Dallas Wind Symphonies, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orquestra Simfonica Illes Balears, the Pacific Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the President's Own US Marine Band, the Showa Wind Symphony, Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra, the United States Army Field Band, Voices of Change, the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Bern, Billings, Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Flagstaff, Ft. Worth, Hartford, Hawaii, Houston, Indianapolis, Nashville, Novosibirsk, Omaha, Pittsburgh, Puerto Rico, Rochester, San Antonio, Seattle, Shanghai, St. Louis, and Sydney.

McTee enjoyed a 30-year teaching career alongside her activities as a composer—three years at Pacific Lutheran University and 27 years at the University of North Texas, where she retired as regents professor emerita in 2011. Later that year, she married conductor Leonard Slatkin. Their principal place of residence is in Saint Louis, Missouri.

For a listing of event times and locations, visit the Events Calendar.