In our recent survey, seventy UUMN members described themselves as composers. They were invited to submit a composer profile as part of a new series, "The YOU in UUMN." Today we begin sharing those profiles:

I like to tell people that I direct the Children's Choir at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign, and in my spare time, I teach electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois. I have composed and arranged music for piano since I was in high school. Except for one course in music theory in high school and one in college, I have had no formal training in music, and none at all in choral conducting. When I became director of the Children's Choir in 2002, I found that some of the music that I wanted to program was in the wrong key for the children's vocal range. So I had to transpose the music. At that point, I decided to change the harmony, and then I added an instrumental part.

I have composed one anthem, "Thank You, World," a Thanksgiving hymn for children. The words of the anthem are inspired by the text of a children's book with the same title by Alice McGinty. You can find a recording of the anthem here:
https://sites.google.com/site/michaelcloui/home/thank-you-world

The music is available from me directly (e-mail [email protected]).