Mimi McClellan

Mimi grew up in a home alive with poetry, music and drama. She was encouraged to study piano, and by the time she reached 13 she had composed a number of piano pieces, several song settings of her father's poetry and an opera, Rumplestiltskin. She received her B.A. from University of Minnesota with a major in music and continued her studies at Yale University in music theory and composition. (Between degrees she served inWorld War II ; WAVE Lt. j.g. USNR). After Yale, Mimi taught music appreciation, fundamentals of music and piano at the University of Minnesota then music theory at Vassar College.

In 1952 she married Sam McClellan, whom she met during his residency at the University of Minnesota medical school. They settled in Boston, Mimi found work teaching music theory at the South End Music Center, and they became Baha'is. Shortly thereafter they moved to Cambridge in order to form the first Local Spiritual Assembly there. Other accomplishments include their three children, John, Charlie and Maggie, and twenty years of Friday night firesides in their home. Many Baha'is discovered the Faith through the McClellan firesides, and a significant number of those gave up everything to become international Baha'i pioneers. During the Cambridge years, in addition to being a housewife and mother, Mimi taught piano lessons to neighborhood children and produced a lot of music for the Baha'is, including children's songs, choral pieces, chamber music and 5 musical plays (The Wonder Lamp, the White Roses of Persia, I Wouldn't Miss the Chance, Every Friday Night, and the Education of Henry Halifax). She edited two Baha'i songbooks: Dawn Song and Sing a New Song, and was music editor for Brilliant Star, a national Baha'i magazine for children, for over 20 years.

In 1973 the McClellans left Cambridge to home-front pioneer in Danville, Kentucky. Mimi taught music fundamentals and piano part-time at Centre College, and she continued composing. The Kentucky period produced a number of serious works, including her musical drama based on the life of Tahirih (this work has yet to be performed in its entirety) and a number of chamber works including two commissions: a score for chorus, organ trumpets and handbells for the installation ceremony of the new President of Centre College (1989) and Three Pieces for Cello and Piano for the Annual Kentucky music Teacher's Association Convention (1990). Sam McClellan passed away in 1998, leaving Mimi to hold down the fort. Five years later she moved back to Massachusetts to live close to her son John and her two granddaughters. Mimi reconnected with her childhood friend, Jim Krebs, and not long after, they married, embarking together on the next stage of the journey, with extended family and friends, and of course, lots of music.

Mimi McClellan’s Websites: mcclellanmusic.org