Jonathan B. McNair
Composer
Educator
Collaborator
“… immensely rewarding music,
well worth repeated hearings.”
-Fanfare Magazine
About Jonathan
Jonathan B. McNair’s music has been described by critics as being “…skillfully crafted…expressive and rhythmic…” His works have been performed across the United States and Puerto Rico in national and regional conferences, as well as festivals such as “Oh My Ears” and “TUTTI.” International performances have occurred in Canada, Brazil, Austria, England, France, and Germany. Soloists and ensembles performing his works include pianist Max Lifchitz, violinists Sarah Whitney, Holly Mulcahy, Sarah Off, and Corinne Stillwell; the Marian Anderson String Quartet; the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, members of the Cleveland Orchestra, members of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Alexander-Soares Duo, Spivey Hall Children's Choir, Myriad Ensemble, and many others.
Recordings of Jonathan’s music have been streamed nationally and internationally, and released by North/South Consonance, the Capstone label of Parma Records, AUR, ACA Digital, and Ablaze Records.
Recent Projects
A recording and private premiere performance of Casting a Line for cello and piano took place in 2024, a recent work composed in response to a listener challenge voiced on air during the Spring of 2024. The piece was commissioned as a benefit for WUTC-FM by donors David and Brenda Binder, in memory of Dr. Samuel Binder, a beloved Chattanooga physician and passionate amateur cellist. Dr. Binder was also an avid collector of visual art and had a deep love for deep-sea fishing.
A Speck of Light was a concert centered on mental health advocacy, held in March 2022. The event involved partnerships with four community-based mental health service organizations and two campus-based organizations at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The concert featured the Unheard-of//Ensemble performing two works by Jonathan McNair: In Memoriam and the premiere of Having It Out with Melancholy. The latter, a five-movement piece, was composed in response to the poetry collection of the same name by American poet Jane Kenyon, who lived with clinical depression and ultimately found effective treatment. Relevant poems were read aloud before each movement.
Upcoming Projects
Reclamation Space is a collaboration with the acclaimed Unheard-of//Ensemble, Ford Forqurean, director. The subjects of Reclamation Space are two public parks in Chattanooga that were once unfit for human use due to pollution and toxins: Enterprise South Nature Park and Sculpture Fields at Montague Park. The former features miles of hiking trails through second-growth forests, and the latter is an international outdoor gallery curated by the late sculptor John Henry. This multimedia project will feature video based on scenes in the parks along with live music and sounds recorded inside one of the TNT storage bunkers found in the Nature Park. Historical perspectives will also be included.
O Captain! My Captain! A new setting of the Walt Whitman lament for Pres. Abraham Lincoln after Lincoln’s assassination. The poem depicts Lincoln as the captain of a ship that has gone through a very difficult voyage and returned home intact to a cheering crowd. But the captain is dead and cannot hear the cheers and the bells ringing. The ship is a metaphor for the US “Ship of State,” and the perilous journey was the War between the States. SATB chorus, acoustic guitar, and string quintet or small string orchestra.