By Jordan Hicks
First-Year Coordinator for the Department of Performing Arts
Ethan McGrath enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the fall of 2012 as a music composition major. Having previously taken piano lessons from the late professor Sin-Hsing Tsai, he wanted to join her UTC piano studio and continue studying with her.
He found Tsai to be one the most supportive people he has ever known.
“She cared deeply about her students and went above and beyond the call of duty to help all of us succeed,” he said.
Another draw to UTC was the Music Composition program, led by Jonathan McNair. Composition was not offered for undergraduates at other institutions, and McGrath found McNair to be an excellent instructor.
“He encourages his students to explore their musical interests and find their own compositional ‘voice,’ but he also encourages them to branch out and try things outside their comfort zone,” McGrath said.
Under the faculty’s guidance, McGrath felt that his talents and abilities were growing both as a musician and as a composer.
“I discovered that I was capable of things I would never have had the gumption to attempt on my own.”
After leaving UTC, McGrath traveled to England to pursue a Master of Music in Choral Conducting at the University of Cambridge. Upon completion of his studies in 2017, he headed back to the U.S. to begin work as a full-time musician and composer. To make himself more marketable, he learned skills to such as playing the organ, piano improvisation and even singing.
“As a teenager, I used to hate vocal music,” he said, “But gradually I was exposed to more and more of it until I grew to love it above all else, to the degree that I wanted to learn how to sing and conduct choirs and compose vocal works.
“I used to want to be a concert pianist, and then I wanted to be a full-time composer, but eventually I learned that it’s much easier to earn a living if you are capable of—and willing to do—more than one thing.”
McGrath said composition is actually a small part of what he does to earn a living, but his other pursuits inform what he does when writing.
“I don’t compose in a vacuum, as it were,” he said. “My compositions are influenced and enriched by all my varied musical pursuits.”
As a composer, his piece called “A Child of the Snows” was performed by the Voce Chamber Choir in London. The American Choral Directors Association commissioned him write a setting of the Fourth Century Christian hymn “Te Deum.” In 2017, he wrote and performed an organ piece for a gala concert celebrating the 90th birthday of the conductor Herbert Blomstedt in Dresden, Germany
McGrath says he enjoys performing the most. He calls it the “incarnation” and delights in working with other performers and bringing the overall vision to life.
“The music really doesn’t exist outside my imagination until it is sung or played by human beings. And those fleeting moments when the music actually happen—especially when I can tell that it is meaningful or uplifting to anybody in the room—are what make it worth all the hours spent slaving over compositions in the isolation of my studio.”
To students who want to become composers, McGrath encourages them to not be afraid or be stymied by rules.
“Write what comes most naturally to you, and don’t obsess over originality. Listen to a wide of variety of music to help you expand your horizons.”
He also believes that looking at musical scores helps a composer distill the mechanics of what they are hearing.
“Listen to music with the score in front of you when possible, taking note of what the composer wrote on the page to achieve the sounds you hear. I really believe I have learned more from doing that than from almost anything else.”
McGrath also said he believes in community and networking. Rising composers should find strength in their own circles to grow professionally, he said.
“Don’t send unsolicited music to people who don’t know you. Instead, start with your friends; write music for your friends to play or sing. They will love the novelty of having music composed for them, and when they play or sing it you will learn much.
“Take note of the things that work and don’t work; ask your friends for advice on what works well for their instruments. They’ll be flattered that you care enough to ask them, and they’ll often have good advice to offer. This does a lot to promote mutual understanding between composers and performers and builds networking skills that you will use throughout your career.”
