TRISTAN McGEHEE (they/them, b. 1999) is an award-winning composer, conductor, and violinist from Kansas City, Kansas. In 2019, they graduated as a double-major from the University of Kansas with a B.M.A. in Music Composition and Music Theory under Dr. Ingrid Stölzel and Dr. Scott Murphy (respectively). During their time at the KU School of Music, McGehee held various leadership positions, with highlights including: president (Kansas New Music Guild), vice president (Kansas New Music Guild), music director (Bluestem Chamber Orchestra), concertmaster (KU University Orchestra), and first violinist (Vertigo String Quartet), while organizing and promoting various collaborations across Schools and concerts both on and off campus.

As a composer, McGehee’s far-reaching impact has included concert music as well as music for the stage and screen. Their unique sound is derived from their diverse pallet of inspirations. Coming from a rural, small Kansas town, the McGehee family was extraordinary musical - ranging from thundering bluegrass bands and devout Southern Gospel congregations, to heavy metal rock bands and other improvisatory forms of musical expression. McGehee’s vast performance experience has taken shape in the form of solo instrumental/vocal, chamber, symphonic, wind ensemble, choral, and jazz performances. This is seen in their most streamed music, including film scores (UNKNOWN), video games, and works for symphonic orchestra (including the recent award-winning dispersion of light). McGehee’s extensive theoretical study of film scores provides cinematic soundscapes of vast proportions to which the composer sets singing melodies.

In addition to being an award-winning composer (including the Eugene and Mary Mingle Scholarship, the Morton and Elizabeth Green Award, and the 2022 George Lawner Prize), McGehee also uses their voice as a prolific conductor to regularly commission works by historically underrepresented composers (including fellow University of Kansas non-binary alumni Wes Unruh and Carter Crosby). McGehee has founded their own orchestra, conducting works of their own and student composers as well as standard repertoire - such as Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite, Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No. 5, and Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from Soldier's Tale. McGehee currently studies as a Master of Music Composition Candidate at the University of Kansas, where they will soon defend their thesis project: a queer symphony that weaves together themes of religious trauma and the young life of a closeted gay/trans person from a conservative background.