Glenn McClure caught our attention in an article from the Rochester City Paper. In 2016, Glenn traveled to Antarctica to study changes in the ice— and to use the data he collected in a new musical project, the latest in McClure's history of combining math, music, and nature. A self-identified “severe stutterer," Glenn is a professor at Paul Smiths College in the Adirondacks, in New York state.
WHAT YOU DO?
I am a composer and teacher. My musical interests focus on civic issues including racial equality and environmental justice. I compose mostly vocal music, including choral works and operas. I have taught Music, History, and the Humanities at the Eastman School of Music, the State University of New York (SUNY) at Geneseo, and currently at Paul Smiths College in the Adirondacks.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES AND INTERESTS?
I worked as a chef long enough to realize that I love cooking in a way that didn’t have to be my job. I cook for my family and for many philanthropic events each year. I enjoy good friends, good food, good music, and good family.
HOW HAVE YOU BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR CAREER?
Success is often in the eyes of the beholder. In terms of traditional career measures, I have written music for the European Space Agency Choir in Darmstadt, Germany and served as an Artist and Writers Fellow for the National Science Foundation in Antarctica. I received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts/ Opera Division and served as a National Teaching Artist Fellow for the Kennedy Center Office of Disability/VSA. I received the Chancellors Award for Adjunct Teaching which is the highest award given by SUNY.
DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU FIRST BEGAN TO STUTTER, AND DID YOU SEEK TREATMENT?
I have stuttered since my first attempts at speech. There was a once-a-week speech therapy service in my small, rural public school but that didn’t help. At the age of 11, I participated in an intensive, six-week, residential clinic at SUNY Geneseo that taught me a control of the disability that I still use every time I speak. When I hold the controls at the highest level, my speech is better than normal disfluency but it is also exhausting. I use the controls at this high level for my college lecturing and other professional duties, then dial it back to 60-70 percent when I am with family and friends. This control has allowed me to hold a very public job.
WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH STUTTERING AS A CHILD?
My disability is labeled “severe.” The only time I could open my mouth without stuttering was when I sang. Music became very important to me as a child. It was the only time I felt powerful and beautiful. It was the only time I could share my thoughts and feelings with others.
My mother was a primary school teacher in the small K-12 school district I attended. During my kindergarten evaluation, the school district recommended that I be placed in the special education tract because, at that point, it was assumed that severe stuttering indicated cognitive delays and other learning disabilities. Administrative norms of the time made it nearly impossible for a student to move from a special education tract to the mainstream tract. As an experienced educator, my mother knew that I had no developmental delays and she fought my special education placement for several years. Many of her colleagues at other grade levels joined the administrative fight. She was proven correct 11 years later when I graduated one year early as the valedictorian. I was lucky to have a mother who understood my disability and to have numerous teachers in my district as advocates. So many other children don’t have such luxuries and young stutterers have been channeled in educational pathways that belie their often hidden abilities.
HAS YOUR STUTTERING GOTTEN WORSE OR BETTER SINCE YOU WERE YOUNGER?
It hasn’t changed. As soon as I “turn off” the controls, I stutter at the same level I did as a child.
COMPOSER GLEN MCCLURE: THE SCALE OF MY STUTTERING
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