About

Andy McFarlane composes acoustic and electronic music using a range of modern and historical styles to portray themes of joy, vigor, mindfulness, hope, and the darkness they overcome. He has composed for a wide array of talent including performances and recordings by the New York Philharmonic Principal Brass Quintet, the Hinge Ensemble, the Cincinnati New Music Ensemble, the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the Springfield Youth Symphony, and others. His recent electronic works include virtual sonic installations, works for live performers, and fixed media, presented in the United States and Seoul, South Korea. In 2024, Andy will earn his DMA in Composition with an electronic music cognate at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music from which he also holds his Master of Music in Composition. He earned his Bachelor of Music from Cedarville University.

I grew up loving sound— the steady rhythm of splitting wood, the bustling of forest wildlife, wind rustling seas of corn stalks and leaves, and a variety of music played loud overtop, always offering complex polyrhythms and harmonies. From age 6, I sat in my rural Ohio home at my family’s piano trying to replicate the music I loved—rock, rap, jazz, bluegrass—improvising my own disjointed melodic phrases over borrowed chords, exploring new sounds, and cultivating them through repetition. While attaining my Bachelor of Music in Composition from Cedarville University, I quickly fell in love with classical music and the endless new, centuries-old world it offered. After years of study, I realized this world was so young compared to the ancient earth around us. My goal is to take and make sense of the amalgam of sounds and amplify this beautiful and terrifying world I experience to my audience.

-Andy