Mr. McCafferty is the Program Director of Music and Music Education at Mount St. Joseph
University, where he first started as a Faculty member in 2013. He holds a Bachelor’s and
Master’s degree in Music Performance from Morehead State University, and a Master of Fine
Arts degree in Professional Composition with a focus in Film and Video Game Music from the
University of Chichester, England.
An avid composer, arranger, and performer, Mr. McCafferty’s music can be heard on most
streaming platforms. He can be heard drumming for Sophia Perry’s Lauren’s Light, playing
vibraphone on Bob Ross’s Arriving, and performing his own compositions for marimba, Going
Past Midnight! and Dance of the Wooden Rose.
His arrangements for steel drum band can be found on SheetMusicPlus.com, and he often
arranges percussion music for area marching bands, several of whom have performed his
arrangements in State Finals competition.
Mr. McCafferty has regularly appeared as an orchestra pit percussionist/drummer for area high
schools and regional theatres, performing with dozens of productions since 2002. He has
performed at multiple conventions, including the Kentucky Music Educators Association (KMEA)
and the Percussive Arts Society’s International Convention (PASIC). Notably, Mr. McCafferty was
a member of the 2021 International Marimba Orchestra, a select organization which performed
at Kutztown University and at PASIC 2021.
Mr. McCafferty has appeared as a guest conductor with Chuck Lauterbach’s The Music Staff and
with the KMEA District 8 2023 All-District Percussion Ensemble. In addition, Mr. McCafferty runs
a marimba rental business and actively shares his passion for percussion instrument repair and
maintenance on YouTube and with area teachers.
Mr. McCafferty lives in Northern Kentucky, in an off-grid house that he and his wife, Emily
McCafferty, built themselves. You can find out more about this journey at
accidentalhippies.com, and about Mr. McCafferty at mccaffertypercussion.com.