Submission declined on 7 October 2025 by CurryTime7-24 (talk). This draft's references do not show that the subject meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for music. The draft requires either: evidence that the subject meets any of the specific criteria for music; or multiple published secondary sources that: provide significant coverage: discuss the subject in detail, not just brief mentions or routine announcements; are reliable: from reputable outlets with editorial oversight; are independent: not connected to the subject, such as interviews, press releases, the subject's own website, or sponsored content. Please add references that meet these criteria. If none exist, the subject is not yet suitable for Wikipedia. It is often easier to prove the notability of an album or artist than an individual song or band member. If the subject is not yet notable, consider improving a relevant existing article instead. If you would like to continue working on the submission, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window. If you have not resolved the issues listed above, your draft will be declined again and potentially deleted. If you need extra help, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors. Please do not remove reviewer comments or this notice until the submission is accepted. Where to get help If you need help editing or submitting your draft, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors. These venues are only for help with editing and the submission process, not to get reviews. If you need feedback on your draft, or if the review is taking a lot of time, you can try asking for help on the talk page of a relevant WikiProject. Some WikiProjects are more active than others so a speedy reply is not guaranteed. How to improve a draft Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia – a basic overview on how to edit Wikipedia. Help:Wikitext – how to use the markup Help:Referencing for beginners – how to include references Wikipedia:Article development – how to develop your article Wikipedia:Writing better articles – how to improve your article Wikipedia:Verifiability – make sure your article includes reliable third-party sources You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Add tags to your draft Editor resources Easy tools: Citation bot (help) | Advanced: Fix bare URLs Declined by CurryTime7-24 8 months ago. Last edited by Wpcontribuser 5 months ago. Reviewer: Inform author. Resubmit Please note that if the issues are not fixed, the draft will be declined again.

Submission declined on 2 December 2023 by Aviram7 (talk). This draft's references do not show that the subject meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for music. The draft requires either: evidence that the subject meets any of the specific criteria for music; or multiple published secondary sources that: provide significant coverage: discuss the subject in detail, not just brief mentions or routine announcements; are reliable: from reputable outlets with editorial oversight; are independent: not connected to the subject, such as interviews, press releases, the subject's own website, or sponsored content. Please add references that meet these criteria. If none exist, the subject is not yet suitable for Wikipedia. It is often easier to prove the notability of an album or artist than an individual song or band member. If the subject is not yet notable, consider improving a relevant existing article instead. This draft is not written from a neutral point of view. Wikipedia articles must be written neutrally in a formal, impersonal, and dispassionate way. They should not read like a blog post, advertisement, or fan page. Rewrite the draft to remove: promotional language: see Words to watch; personal commentary: opinions or direct addresses to the reader; informal language. Instead, only summarize in your own words a range of independent, reliable, published sources that discuss the subject. Declined by Aviram7 2 years ago.

• Comment: Interesting subject, but cited sources do not confirm notability. Note that Discogs is not an acceptable source. CurryTime7-24 (talk) 06:54, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

Roderick Neil McKay (June 16, 1924 – December 8, 2016) was a Canadian (Naturalized American citizen 1963) composer, musician, arranger, big band leader, and university professor. He took his first lessons on the violin at age 8, began playing bass with a 'Hawaiian Band' at 13, and subsequently took up the Saxophone and formed his first dance band in high school.

McKay studied music with John Jacob Weinzweig at the Royal Conservatory of Music^[1], and The Glenn Gould School in Toronto. At the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario he received his Bachelor of Arts and then completed his degree work at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., studying with Bernard Rogers, Howard Hanson, and Alan Hovhaness - receiving his Master of Music for his "Festival Concertino for Orchestra" and his Ph.D. in 1956 for his "Symphony No. 1"

From 1944 to 1946 McKay played with the Canadian Navy Band, stationed at the Signal School in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, and on the Aircraft carrier HMCS Warrior, with deployment to Ireland in 1945.

Following his Navy service, McKay was an arranger and conductor for the Canadian broadcaster CFPL.^[2] From late 1946 through 1954 McKay and CFPL produced (CBC) Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programming through the coast-to-coast Trans-Canada Network. These shows included a 5-year run of "The Don Harding Show with Neil McKay and his Orchestra", Neil McKay and the CFPL All Stars performing the weekly "Invitation from Dominion", a thirteen-week run of "Silverwood Serenade" and the weekly songwriting contest, "Search for Songs." McKay subsequently produced and published a number of recordings with his small group, The Neil McKay Octet. In 1953 McKay passed the leader role of the "All-Stars" to trumpeter George Tingey when he left to complete his Doctorate at the Eastman School of Music.
see > Big Bands of London, Ontario, and see > Neil McKay @ londonbigband.ca

Neil McKay's academic teaching career began at the University of Wisconsin at Superior where he taught music theory and woodwinds, while still performing, on oboe, as a member of the Duluth Symphony Orchestra^[3]. In 1963 McKay became a naturalized US citizen. In 1965, McKay and his family moved to Honolulu, Hawai'i where he taught music theory, orchestration, and composition at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. In 1987 he retired as Emeritus Professor of the University of Hawai'i at Manoa^[4]. McKay continued to compose music influenced by jazz and by the sounds and concepts of music of the Pacific Basin. His music has been performed in Europe, Asia, and South American as well as Canada and United States.

McKay was a member of ASCAP, the Society of Composers^[5], The American Music Center, the American Composers Forum and a Fellow of the MacDowell Colony, in 1961, 1963, and 1978. See [1] MacDowell Colony Neil McKay 'Artists' page.

As a composer, he received a number of awards, including the 1st prize at the "Ottawa Symphony competition for Canadian composers" and scholarships such as the Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. McKay has also received prizes and commissions, including ASCAP awards for serious music for the past thirty-two consecutive years.

The cultural milieu in Hawai'i stimulated McKay's interest in the sounds and musical concepts as well as instruments of Asia and Polynesia. This resulted in works for a variety of media: World(s) for solo koto; Evocations for concert band; Parables of Kyai Gandrung for Javanese gamelan and orchestra; Soundprints for koto and clarinet; and Kubla Khan for soprano and chamber ensemble."

WORLD(S) for solo KOTO (1970): performed in the United States, the Philippines, Japan, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria. Performed by Keiko Nosaka in Carnegie Hall, New York as part of a world tour 6/24/81, and recorded by Keiko Nosaka for Camerata Records (Tokyo) CMT-1048

EVOCATIONS for Concert Band (1968) – * Recorded by Shawnee Press

PARABLES OF KYAI GANDRUNG for Javanese gamelan and orchestra (1976) written with Hardja Susilo, premiered by the Honolulu Symphony

KUBLA KHAN for soprano and chamber ensemble (1977)

SOUNDPRINTS for Clarinet and Koto (1982): Winner, first prize, American Chamber Music Composition Competition (1983) {reviewed by Colin Clarke for Fanfare magazine 1-2017}

GAMELAN GONG (1971) : "...the purpose of the composition is not to recreate the authentic sound of a Balinese gamelan ensemble, but rather to represent its overall effect using the elements of Western instrumental music," Hawaii Symphonic Band Presents Summer Spectacular II In honor of Dr. Neil McKay Featuring his Gamelan Gong August 5, 2017

1954 - Invitation by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation to write a work for broadcast, resulting in "Ballet for Spring", premiered that year.

1955 - "FESTIVAL CONCERTINO" won First Prize – Ottawa Symphony competition for Canadian composers.

1956 - "LARGHETTO" won the Edward Benjamin Prize for Quiet Music – * Recorded on Mercury Records by the Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra, Howard Hanson, conductor

1960 - "SYMPHONY No.1" – Selected for performance by the Dallas Symphony, Donald Johanos, conductor, by the Dallas Library Composers Conference, Darius Milhaud, moderator.

1960 - "FANTASY ON A QUIET THEME" – Performed as one of several pieces representing Canada at the Inter-American Music Festival, Washington, DC – * Recorded by the Atlantic Symphony (CBC Symphony SM 241), Klaro Mizertt, conductor.(10)

1961 - "FANTASY ON A QUIET THEME" – Selected to be performed at the 2nd Annual Symposium of Contemporary American Music, University of Kansas

1962 - "STRING QUARTET No. 1" – runner-up in the Sosland String Quartet Competition – performed by the Fine Arts Quartet of Chicago.

1965 - "DANCE OVERTURE" commissioned by the Duluth Symphony for the dedication of the Duluth Arena Auditorium complex.

1970 - "WORLD(S)" performed by Keiko Nosaka in Carnegie Hall, NY 6/24/81. * Recorded by Keiko Nosaka for Camerata Records. ^[6]

1971 - "GAMELAN GONG" commissioned by the Curriculum Research Center, University of Hawaii

1973 - "GAMELAN GONG" selected by artistic jury for performance at the 1973 Society of Composers National Convention (@ University of Kansas, Lawrence)

1974 - "EVOCATIONS" performed in Carnegie Hall, NY 5/24/1974 by The New York City All-City High School Band.

1976 - "PARABLES OF KYAI GANDRUNG" for Javanese gamelan and orchestra (Hardja Susilo co-composer) commissioned for the bicentennial year and premiered at Blaisdell Concert Hall by the Honolulu Symphony orchestra, Robert LaMarchina, conductor.

1979 - "KUBLA KHAN" selected by artistic jury for performance at the 1979 Society of Composers National Convention at the University of California, San Diego, California.

1961, 1963, 1979 - Awarded resident fellowship at The MacDowell Colony (1961, 1963, 1979)

1982 - "KALEIDOSCOPE" selected by artistic jury for performance at the 1982 Society of Composers National Convention at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

1983 - "SOUNDPRINTS" (Clarinet and Koto) won First Prize - American Chamber Music Composition Competition.

1984 - "EVOCATIONS" commissioned by Central Pacific Bank, Honolulu in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Hawai'i.

1986 - "RITUAL" selected for performance by the artistic jury at the University of Toronto.

1992 - "SUITE OF MINIATURES for CLARINET AND PERCUSSION" selected for performance by the artistic jury at the University of Alabama, Tuscalusa.

1997 - Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

1997 - Awarded Composer-in-Residence at the Charles Ives Center, Piccolo Spoleto Festival Charleston S.C.

2001 - "SYMPHONY No.2" (A Shakespeare Triptych) won the Competition for American Composers sponsored by the Loudoun (VA) Symphony Orchestra.

2002 - "SUCH SWEET SORROW" selected for performance by the artistic jury at the University of Ohio, Akron.

2005 - "BOP-A-DEEDLE!" commissioned by Louis Vuitton on its 150th anniversary. For Afro-Caribbean percussion and orchestra.

2005 - "SYMPHONY FOR WINDS" – selected for performance by the artistic jury at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro

2009 - "ODE TO AQUARIUS" commissioned by Keiko Tadashi in celebration of the restoration of "Aquarius", a mosaic created by artist Tadashi Sato in 1970, displayed in the rotunda of the Hawaiʻi State Capitol building in Honolulu. – * Recorded by the Galliard String Quartet

2010 - "VOICE OF THE PHOENIX" received a Juried Award at the Stanford Pan-Asian Music Festival.

2017 - "GAMELAN GONG" performed by the Hawaii Symphonic Band Ensemble, Grant Okamura, conductor. "Summer Spectacular II in honor of Dr. Neil McKay." Video of the performance August 5, 2017 -> @youtube [2]"Gamelan Gong"

^{[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]}

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF UNIVERSITY COMPOSERS Conference 1979: https://libraries.uta.edu/sci/sites/sci/files/nc_1979.pdf