George Frederick McKay

George Frederick McKay (June 11, 1899 – October 4, 1970) was a prolific modern American composer. Biography McKay was born in the small frontier wheat farming town of Harrington, Washington. His family later moved to Spokane, where he attended school up to his college years. He was attracted to American folk-song, including jazz and blues and Native American themes, and to a great degree, his music contains a poignant evocation of the West Coast American spirit, including glimpses of a populist era of street marches, honky-tonk dance halls and social chaos along with a recognition of the great natural beauty of his home region and the vitality of its people (i.e. Harbor Narrative-1934). He admired composers who involved national folk-culture in their music, e.g. Heitor Villa-Lobos, Carlos Chávez, William Grant Still, Antonín Dvořák and Béla Bartók. Many of McKay’s symphonic works center on folk themes and include pieces dedicated to Native American music. He was famous for his intellectual and moral support of young composers who studied with him in Seattle, such as William Bolcom, Goddard Lieberson and Earl Robinson. He also founded the Composition Department at the University of