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The American pianist, Mac McClure, completed his Bachelor of Arts in Romance Languages at the University of North Carolina in 1984. In 1982 he began to study the piano under Consuelo Colomer and continued with Michael Zenge and Phyllis Rappeport. In 1986 he moved to Barcelona Spain to study with Carlota Garriga at the prestigious Marshall Academy, founded in 1901 by Enrique Granados. Since 1991 he has worked closely with Alicia de Larrocha the Spanish vocal repertory (Montsalvatge, Mompou, Rodrigo, Turina and the complete songs of E. Granados) and Spanish solo repertory (Albeniz, Ballada, Espla, Falla, E. Granados, Montsalvatge, Mompou, Rodrigo, Surinach, Turina ect.) as well as standard repertory such as W.A. Mozart, Frédéric Chopin, and Ravel. Since 1998 he has worked closely with Dalton Baldwin studying French art song.
Mac McClure's repertoire extends from J.S. Bach to Lutoslawski, Messeain and Rzewski. In addition to the Spanish and traditional repertories, McClure is an acclaimed champion of the 20th century music. He has given world premiers by Montsalvatge, Mompou, Morera, Arauco, Bertran, Borras, Cervello, Garriga, . . . working closely with Ingrid Arauco, Carlota Garriga, Moises Bertran, Ramon Humet, Ricardo Llorca, Xavier Montsalvatge, Joaquin Nin-Culmell, Carlos Surinach, and Xavier Turull. His repertoire for piano and orchestra includes works by De Aguila, Bolcom, Barber, Bartok, Ravel, Daughtery, Falla, Garriga, Montsalvatge, and Surinach. He is frequently invited to play with major American and European orchestras.
Mac McClure is the assistant director of the Semana Colombo Catalana (a week dedicated to Colombian and Catalan music) in the University EAFIT in Medellin Colombia. Along with co-editor Frances Barulich, he has published an urtext edition of the complete songs of Albeniz and a volume of arias form the stage works of Albeniz, all published by Editorial Boileau. He is the executive president of SIL (Spanish Independent Labels), company that is dedicated to the exportation and promotion of Spanish recording labels.(Almaviva, Discant, Ediciones Moraleda, Enchriades, Licanus, Opera Tres, Verso and Columna Musica).
Mac McClure resides in Barcelona, Spain. He performs frequently in Spain and the rest of Europe. He debuted in the International Festival in Perelada in an avant-garde production of Rossini's Barber of Seville under the direction of Carlos Santos and has been invited to perform in the festivasl in Camprodon, Torella de Montgri, Girona, Pals, Alicante, Granada, Düsseldorf. He travels to the USA two or three times a year to offer master-classes and concerts at universities (University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, University of North Carolina at Chapel and Greenville: Queens College, University of Arizona ect.) and conservatoires (Julliard School of Music).
Outstanding among Mac McClure's many recordings for Columna Musica are the complete vocal works of Albéniz, music of J.S. Bach transcribed for the piano by Ferruccio Busoni, Camille Saint-Saëns and Franz Liszt. The world premier recording of the E. Granados Quintet Op. 49, released en January of 2002, highly praised in Gramophone and International Record Review, will soon be followed by another CD of E. Granados chamber music including the piano trio and the complete music for cello and piano. The complete vocal works of Mompou and piano solo and vocal works by Manel valls. He is the coordinator of three major projects; the complete works of Xavier Montsalvatge, (a 1 CD project of which 8 are now in the market, a 6 CD project of Mompou of which the complete songs were released in 2005, and the complete works the of music of Oscar Espla. |
