Carl McKinley

Carl McKinley (9 October 1895, Yarmouth, Maine — 24 July 1966, Centerville, Massachusetts) was an American composer, organist, and pedagogue who taught at the New England Conservatory Of Music from 1929 until his retirement in the mid-1960s. McKinley's father was a Congregational Church pastor, and Carl spent his childhood in Rockville, Connecticut, before the family relocated to Galesburg, Illinois. In 1915, McKinley graduated from the Knox Conservatory with his Bachelor's degree. Carl continued his education at Harvard University with E. B. Hill and Nadia Boulanger, earning his AB degree in 1917. He went to New York City on a Naumberg Fellowship, further trained by Rubin Goldmark, Gaston Dethier, and L.A. Philharmonic's first conductor, Walter Henry Rothwell (1872—1927). Carl McKinley returned to Connecticut for several years, performing as an organist at various Hartford churches and theaters; he also served as the organist at New York's Capitol Theater. In 1927, Carl McKinley received two Guggenheim Fellowships in succession, spending three years in Munich as a stage assistant at Bayerische Staatsoper. After returning to the United States in 1929, McKinley joined the NEC faculty in Boston, where he served as Old South Church's organist and choirmaster. Some of his students include Ivana Marburger Themmen.