About

Percussionist, Educator, Advocate

McKenna is an active educator, working with various steel pan groups, percussion ensembles, and marching percussion in Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, and Iowa. She has previously held positions at Cornell College and Iowa Wesleyan University, as well as several high schools throughout the country. McKenna has performed extensively across the United States and Italy as a soloist, chamber, and ensemble musician. She has performed with percussionists and groups such as Steven Schick, Victor Provost, Michael Compitello, Ksenija Komljenović, and Sõ Percussion, and has performed in the Cortona Marimba Sessions and Arcata Gathering Festival as an inaugural member, as well as the Cortona Sessions for New Music.

An advocate for new music and the commissioning and programming of underrepresented composers, her current research entitled “Invitation to Be”, focuses on the collaboration process between composer and performer in the commissioning of music with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion in her music. She has worked with composers such as Caroline Shaw, Yaz Lancaster, Tanner Porter, Brendan Sweeney, Julia Petrongolo, Lucy Shirley, Charlotte Otto, and Adam Grim.

McKenna is in her final semester at the University of Iowa where she is studying with Dr. Dan Moore. She is expected to graduate with a DMA in Percussion Performance and Pedagogy with an Ethnomusicology secondary emphasis in May 2025. She has received a Bachelor of Music Education with a Percussion Performance Certificate from Appalachian State and a Masters in Percussion Performance at Truman State while serving as a graduate teaching and research assistant. Previous teachers include Dr. Rob Falvo, Dr. Diana Loomer, Dr. Michael Bump, Professor Byron Hedgepeth, and Professor Rick Dilling.

McKenna is a Vic Firth Educational Artist and a member of the Network for Diversity in Concert Percussion.