Eric McIntyre

Eric McIntyre is a versatile artist who maintains careers as a composer, conductor, instrumental performer, and educator. He currently serves on the faculty of Grinnell College where he conducts the Grinnell Symphony and teaches music composition, theory, and history. He is also the Music Director of the Central Iowa Symphony and the Fort Dodge Area Symphony. McIntyre began his professional career as a hornist with the Houston Ballet and Houston Grand Opera Orchestras when he was completing doctoral studies in composition at the University of Houston Moores School of Music. While still performing in Houston, he accepted a position on the faculty of the Hurley School of Music at Centenary College of Louisiana, where he conducted the Hurley Symphony Orchestra and directed the composition studio. He joined the Grinnell College faculty in 2003. He has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses at the Moores School of Music and Brazosport College and maintained a private composition and horn studio for several years in the Houston area. In addition to his regular teaching positions, McIntyre has continued to serve as a guest clinician, giving recent lessons and masterclasses at Drake University, Simpson College, Northern State University, and in Cape Town, South Africa. As a composer, McIntyre works in a variety of styles and genres, from traditional orchestral and chamber music to theatrical work and the avant-garde. His work has been performed in venues around the world by several leading musicians, and he has received honors and awards from a number of musical organizations. His recent work includes commissions from the Aberdeen Civic University Symphony, Mason City High School Symphonic Band, the trumpet/organ duo of Nathaniel Mayfield and Vincent de Vries, tubist Mark Barton, AURA Contemporary Ensemble, and St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society of Houston. In 2005 he was selected to be an Artist in Residence at Isle Royale National Park. McIntyre holds a DMA in music composition from the University of Houston Moores School of Music. His principal composition teachers have included Robert Nelson, David Ashley White, and Don Freund. To learn more about his work as a composer, please visit the composition page. McIntyre has served as conductor and music director for a number of ensembles, including orchestras, brass choirs, contemporary music ensemble, and opera theater. His passion for new and unique music is an essential aspect of his approach to programming, and he is devoted to helping audiences develop new ears for old and new music of all styles. He has led premiere readings, recordings, and performances of dozens of new works. His conducting mentors include Franz Krager, Peter Jacoby, John Shenaut, and John Canarina, and he has had additional studies at the Pierre Monteux School. To learn more about his work as a conductor, please visit the conducting page. McIntyre received BM and MM degrees in horn performance from Indiana University where he was also awarded the Performer’s Certificate, and he attended the European Mozart Foundation Academy in Kraków, Poland. His primary teachers include Myron Bloom, Volker Altmann, Jay Andrus, Nancy Goodearl, and natural hornist Richard Seraphinoff. He has performed with several professional orchestras and chamber ensembles and has toured Europe as a chamber and opera orchestra musician. He continues to perform solo and chamber music recitals on both modern and natural horn. In the spring of 2008, McIntyre received an Iowa Arts Council grant for his series of collaborative recitals, “Theatrical Chamber Music and Narrative Improvisation.” To learn more about his work as a hornist and hear audio files of recent performances, please visit the horn page. Beyond his musical activities, McIntyre and his wife Guinevere raise dairy sheep, dairy goats, turkeys, and chickens on their farms outside Grinnell, IA where they grow much of their own food. Guinevere is an active cheesemaker, and Eric is an amateur butcher who processes all of the meat they raise on the farm. They enjoy rural life with their sons Miles and Ty and their dogs Bibi, Little Dickens, and Pippi.