Drawing Room Chamber Concert with Jim McCutcheon, guitar

Jim is a pillar in the music community in our region. To understand Jim McCutcheon and the impact that he has had, one first needs to understand how many musical pots he stirs. Jim is the owner of McCutcheon Music which is a 30 + year old, Centerville based, music store providing lessons, rentals and repairs. Since 1978 he has taught at the University of Dayton. He is now their Senior Lecturer in guitar. He is also an adjunct professor at Wright State University School of Fine and Performing Arts and he teaches guitar at Miami University.

He produces a weekly radio program on Discover Classical Radio called, “The Intimate Guitar” because, he says, “It is the instrument held closest to the heart.”

He has produced five solo recordings and in his 50 + year career he has performed countless television, radio and live concert appearances, including many times at the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center.

He is and has always been active in teaching music to young people through lessons, school assembly programs, residencies and arts integration programs such as Muse Machine and Montgomery County Culture Works. He has written several method books for guitar instruction which specialize in teaching guitar to young children for which he was awarded the 2017 Ohio Governor’s Award for the Arts in Arts Education.

Jim McCutcheon has been given many distinguished awards and honors over the years. He was awarded a University of Dayton “Outstanding Contributions” award. He was the first recipient of the WSU Music Department Distinguished Alumni Award for his achievements as a musician, music teacher, and arts advocate. He also received the 1992 WSU School of Graduate Studies Outstanding Alumni Award. He received a Parents’ Choice Foundation Silver Award for his CD “A Day with the Guitar Man,” and he received the Muse Machine’s Prism Award.

Jim will be the featured artist for Hayner’s April 29 Drawing Room Chamber Concert. “We are so proud to have Jim with us this year,” says Terrilynn Meece of the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center. “In his classical guitar you will hear the many decades of service and devotion to music that he built his life on. You will hear his ‘intimate guitar’ and experience his deep understanding of the mysteries of music. This concert will be a very special way to end the season.”