Described as “contemporary, edgy, descriptive, and extremely soulful,” Sally Lamb McCune’s works range from solo instrumental pieces to works for wind ensemble, orchestra and chorus. She has also worked in the areas of theatre and dance, underscoring dramatic works and providing music for movement-based theatre and dance. Born in Detroit in 1966, Lamb McCune was educated at the University of Toronto, California Institute of the Arts, and earned her MFA and DMA at Cornell University (1998). Her principal teachers have included Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra and Mel Powell.

Lamb McCune has been the winner of numerous honors, including awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (the 2001 Charles Ives Fellowship), the Whitaker New Reading Session, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, the Society for Music (including an Aaron Copland Recording Grant 2008), New York State Fund Creation Grant (2007), Women’s Philharmonic and the International Alliance for Women in Music. She has received numerous commissions, including those from the Kitchen Theatre Company (Ithaca, NY), Ensemble X, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Ariadne String Quartet, Cornell University Wind Ensemble, Cornell University Women’s Chorus and the New York State Music Teacher’s Association.

Sally Lamb McCune has taught at Cornell University, Syracuse University and is currently on the faculty at Ithaca College. She has served as guest composer at Eastman School of Music, University of South Carolina, Pepperdine University and the University of Pittsburgh, Bradford. Lamb McCune is also very active in public schools and has served as composer-in-residence in regional elementary schools in Syracuse and Ithaca. She continues to involve college composition students through the IC Composing-in-the-Schools program.