Priscilla McLean

Priscilla McLeanPriscilla McLean (née Taylor; born May 27, 1942) is an American composer, performer, video artist, writer, and music reviewer.

Life Priscilla McLean singingPriscilla Taylor was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the daughter of business manager Conrad Taylor and school teacher Grace Taylor. She graduated from Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts (BEd 1963) and the University of Massachusetts, Lowell (BME 1965). At Indiana University, Bloomington (MM 1969), she was greatly influenced by the music of Xenakis, who was teaching there. She has taught at Indiana University, Kokomo (1971–3), St. Mary's College, Notre Dame (1973–6), and the University of Hawaii (1985) and the University of Malaysia (1996). From 1976 to 1980 she produced the American Society of Composers' Radiofest series. In 1974 she and her husband, Barton McLean, began to perform together as The McLean Mix, and in 1983 to present concerts of their own music full-time. She sings with extended vocal techniques and plays the piano, synthesizer, violin, percussion, and Amerindian wooden flutes, as well as newly created instruments.

Priscilla McLean playing an altered violinAs The McLean Mix, the couple has performed throughout the United States and Europe, Southeast Asia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The New Grove Dictionary of Music describes McLean's work as "[ranging] from abstract orchestral and chamber music to dramatic electro-acoustic works. Since 1978 most of her music has focused on the concept of the wilderness and has incorporated sounds from animals and nature along with synthesized music." National Endowment for the Arts Media Arts Grant Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant Peter's People: Creating the Dream, collaboration with Barton McLean, video featuring interviewed artists and original music, 2012 Pilgrimage, electronic music, 2015 Songs of Radiance: Softly the Morning's Radiance, There Was a Time, and Time is But the Stream, electroacoustic music, 2016 Caribbean Fantasy, electroacoustic music, 2019 Ghost Voices, electroacoustic music, 2020 Ruckus, electroacoustic music, 2021 Quarantined!, electroacoustic music, 2022

Books and films Hanging Off the Edge— Revelations of a Modern Troubadour, memoir by Priscilla McLean, 279 pp, iUniverse, 2006. Peter's People— Creating the Dream, Priscilla and Barton McLean, film directors, 2012.