A. Kori Hill
Meet Anthony and Demarre McGill. They’re the McGill Brothers: performers, teachers, and orchestral musicians. They grew up in Chicago. Demarre started learning flute at 7; Anthony grew up listening to his brother practice , and soon, he picked up a woodwind instrument too: the clarinet.
The McGill Brothers attended the Merit School of Music and played in the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra (CYSO). The brothers went on to graduate from the Curtis School of Music. Demarre would also study at Juilliard, where he got a master’s degree.
Today, the McGill Brothers are two of the few African American classical musicians who are members of major American orchestras. Anthony is principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic , and Demarre is principal flute of the Seattle Symphony.
While the McGill Brothers are well-versed in canonical repertoire, they also play new music. Demarre has performed Lowell Liebermann’s Flute Sonata, and Anthony has recorded works by Coleman, James Lee III, Richard Danielpour, and Benjamin J. Shirley with the Pacifica Quartet.
The McGill Brothers also perform together. In 2018, they returned to Chicago to premiere a new work by Michael Abels, Winged Creatures, for flute, clarinet , and orchestra with the CYSO. This performance was featured on Anthony’s album one year later.
The McGill Brothers took part in a project called Principal Brothers. This was envisioned by James Lee III, who wrote four works, one each, for the McGill Brothers and fellow principal players Titus Underwood (Nashville) and Bryan Young (Baltimore Chamber Orchestra). Listen to Titus perform Principal Brothers No. 2 here.
They founded the McGill/McHale Trio with pianist Michael McHale in 2014. Their debut album, Portraits, features Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, arranged by Michael, an Irish folk song, Valerie Coleman’s Portraits of Langston, and other music by contemporary composers.
The McGill Brothers are also dedicated to equal rights. In 2020, Anthony returned to Cincinnati (he was once a CSO member) to record Anthony Davis’ You Have the Right to Remain Silent with the Cincinnati Symphony. That same year, both brothers took part in a virtual recording of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” with other musicians.
In 2023, Anthony recorded Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra by Malek Jandeli, a work that explores societal injustice; he would perform it live a year later with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, which you can watch here.
Even though the McGill Brothers have their own careers, they make sure to collaborate with others and each other. Who is a musician you’d like to collaborate with, even if that means the instrumentation may not be typical in classical music?
