Shirley McKamie's music career has encompassed several areas and modes of teaching. In addition to providing applied instruction in piano, pipe organ and harpsichord, she designed music courses for summer academic camps in the Midwest and, for 25 years, taught courses in Musicology at Truman State University. Beyond her teaching duties she served as Chair of the Celtic Studies Coordinating Committee, member of the Interdisciplinary Studies Oversight Committee and faculty consultant for instructional technology in the School of Arts and Letters. Upon retirement in 2021, she was appointed to the Truman emeriti music faculty, "in recognition of distinguished and devoted service."
Following early music studies with Naomi Bauer in Hudson, Kansas, Ms. McKamie received a scholarship to study piano with Artist-in-Residence Stefan Bardas at the University of North Texas, where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance, with minors in pipe organ and harpsichord. Subsequently she performed professionally as a chamber musician and collaborative pianist in Dallas and Fort Worth, and later, in Kansas City.
In 1992 she accepted a teaching assistantship in music at Truman State University where she received the degree, Master of Arts in Music Research. Her thesis in comparative aesthetics received national recognition, through a research competition sponsored by the National Council of Graduate Schools.
The recipient of several teaching and mentoring awards, Prof. McKamie focused her efforts on undergraduate interdisciplinary research, primarily through the two Junior-Year Interdisciplinary Seminars she taught each semester: "JINS 301 - Music in Religious Thought and Practice" and "JINS 378 - Visual Music: From Mimesis to Abstraction." Her students regularly presented their work at national conferences and published their research. One of the projects she mentored, Polyphonic Song in the Republic of Georgia, included field recordings made by a Truman student, Giorgi Amashukeli, and was requested for the holdings of Widener Library at Harvard University.
Shirley and her husband, David, are the parents of Dr. Alex McKamie (B.M. in Violin and B.A. in Chinese Studies, from Truman), who is the violin professor at Texas Woman's University.