Michael Scott McBride (b. 1980) is an internationally-performed composer, performer, conductor, and educator. Having studied with Augusta Read Thomas, Jay Alan Yim, and Jason Eckardt, he earned a DM in composition at Northwestern University, where he was also a lecturer in the Theory/Cognition program. He has also taught at Elmhurst College and works full-time as Adjunct Professor of Music at North Park University since 2006. The summer of 2009 marks the sixth year he will serve as the coordinator of the composition program for the National High School Music Institute at NU.

He received his Bachelor of Music from the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in Wheaton, IL, where he double majored in composition and piano performance. At Wheaton, he seized a variety of honors and experiences such as the Halvorsen Composition Award, Conservatory Faculty Endowed Scholarship, Scholastic Honor Society membership and scholarship, three best soundtrack awards at the annual Film Festival, playing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto (1st movt.) with the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra, being the principal student conductor of the WCSO, and teaching aural skills in the classroom and privately. He has received awards/grants from the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation and the American Music Center.