L.E. McCullough

L.E. McCullough (b. Speedway, 1952 - ) – Traditional Irish Musician (mainly tinwhistle and flute), pedagogue, scholar, composer, and author. Trained in classical piano and jazz saxophone while growing up in Indianapolis, McCullough immersed himself in intense study of Irish traditional music—in the United States and Ireland—in the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, he won competitions in the United States and Ireland for his mastery of the tin whistle. As an outgrowth of his performance endeavors, he turned to scholarship and completed a dissertation entitled “Irish Music in Chicago: An Ethnomusicological Study” from the University of Pittsburgh in 1978. His academic work includes many published articles—including the New Grove American (1986) entry on Irish American Music—and pedagogical works such as The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tutor (1976). As a performer, he has recorded twenty-seven albums published by Sony Classical, Rounder, Angel/EMI, RCA, Warner Brothers and various other labels. In the 1980s, he started composing and arranging music in a hybrid style that became known as Celtic World Beat. More recently, McCullough has composed incidental music for commercials, PBS film, and theater. Of particular note, he worked on the music for The West and Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, a documentary by Ken Burns. As if his activities within music are not diverse enough, he teaches creative writing for IUPUI and has published extensively as a playwright and fiction writer. In 2000, he published a one-act play entitled That Band from Indiana, which is about the Charlie Davis Band from Indianapolis.