Megan McDevitt

Dr. Megan McDevitt’s commitment to bringing music education to populations who need it has led her to spend the last 9 years working for El Sistema-inspired programs both as double bass instructor and in a managerial role. She became the Associate Director of Buffalo String Works in the spring of 2018 and founded the bass program, which she teaches, in the fall of that year. Megan has worked extensively as an orchestral musician, having performed regularly with the bass sections of the San Francisco Bay Area, Ann Arbor area, and with the BPO in Buffalo. Her dual passions of new music and teaching moved her to complete a DMA from the University of Michigan under Diana Gannett, to commission solo works, and to compose with electronics. As half of the bass duo Shade & Light (with Betsy Soukup), she strives to create performances that are transformative for audiences as well as themselves. Megan’s interests extend to the research of gender in the field of music (particularly in the realm of bassists), and she has lectured on this topic at the International Society of Bassists convention in Ithaca and at the Great Lakes Regional College Music Society Conference in Ohio.