Brendan McEvoy

Music Theory

Brendan McEvoy is a music theorist, violinist, violist, and composer from Fowler, Ohio. He holds an M.M. in music theory from Michigan State and a B.M. in music composition from Youngstown State University. Brendan has taught theory, composition, violin, and piano lessons to students of all ages and musical backgrounds, and currently holds teaching positions at The University of Olivet, Kellogg Community College, and Roth Academy of Music.

Brendan’s research interests include music theory pedagogy, scholarship of teaching and learning, interdisciplinary pedagogy, musical meaning and semiotics, topic theory, music cognition, and beginning violin pedagogy. He has shared his research at regional conferences around the US and Canada,  and was named a 2024 Emerging Scholar of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Some of his recent projects include incorporating STEM and interdisciplinary pedagogy into music theory fundamentals, musical meaning and anti-narrative in Julius Eastman’s piano works, philosophical and aesthetic subtexts in Richard Strauss’ Capriccio, and establishing a framework for an insect topic in film and art music.

In his spare time, Brendan enjoys performing chamber music and premieres of his friends’ compositions, reading obtuse surrealist comic science fiction, trying out new dessert recipes, losing in chess games against his younger brother, and meeting new feline friends.