Andrew McKinley

Andrew McKinley (1903 – 11 January 1996) was an American operatic tenor, violinist, arts administrator, music educator, and school administrator. Although he mainly performed in the United States, he had an active international singing career with major opera companies and symphony orchestras from the 1940s through the 1960s. His repertoire spanned a wide range, from leading tenor parts to character roles.

As a performer McKinley is best remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of two operas by Gian Carlo Menotti: Nika Magadoff in the Pulitzer Prize winning The Consul (1950) and King Kaspar in the Peabody Award winning Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951). The latter opera was made by the NBC Opera Theatre, and McKinley filmed several more operas with that organization during his career. He also taught violin at the Juilliard School of Music for almost four decades and in 1968 founded the Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts in Wheatley Heights, Long Island.

Born in Pittsburgh, McKinley entered the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School) as a violin major in 1922. He later joined the violin faculty of the school's pre-college division in the early 1930s; remaining as an instructor at Juilliard until 1970. While a student at Juilliard he began performing as a violinist, mainly in orchestras and chamber ensembles. He continued to play the violin for the rest of his life.

Although his performance career started and finished as a violinist, McKinley became more well known to audiences internationally for his work as a singer. He began his singing career as a concert singer in the United States, but had his first major successes when he branched out into opera in the 1940s. He appeared with several leading opera houses in both the United States and Europe during his career, including the Glyndebourne Festival Opera where he was seen as Malcolm in Giuseppe Verdi's Macbeth in 1947.

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