Worship. Serve. Grow.

Rusty McKinney

Rusty is a native of Greensboro, NC and grew up in a family of professional musicians. He is an alumnus of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD where he was a bass trombone performance major. Over a period of 16 years, he served as Music Director for Mount Tabor Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City, UT, First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City, White Plains United Methodist Church in Cary, and Oakland Presbyterian Church in Clayton, prior to his appointment as Minister of Music at St. Paul’s Church in 2015.

In 2018, Rusty became the Artistic Director for the Oak City Voices, a women’s community chorus that present a concert series and performs for community events in the Triangle. Since 2020, he has served as Director of Music for the Raleigh Convocation Choir which specializes in presenting traditional choral Evensong at parishes around the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.

Before returning to North Carolina, Rusty was the bass trombonist of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for 22 years. Prior to that appointment, he held  positions as bass trombonist with the Chattanooga Symphony, The Eastern Music Festival, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Rusty has been a guest musician for the Kennedy Center Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., the Baltimore Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Alabama Symphony. He is a frequent guest musician with the North Carolina Symphony and plays as needed with the North Carolina Opera Orchestra and other top tier ensembles  and regional orchestras throughout NC.

As a music educator, Rusty has held adjunct positions at the University of Utah (Associate Professor of Trombone), Brigham Young University (Assistant Lecturer of Bass Trombone), and Snow College (Director of Low Brass Studies). He was also the Music Director and Conductor for the Westminster College Chamber Orchestra in Salt Lake City. He continues to teach brass students privately on a limited basis.

Rusty is married to Linda, who is an alumnus of the Peabody Conservatory and Meredith College. She is the Town Clerk of Holly Springs and is a member of the St. Paul’s Choir. They have three grown children, two grandchildren and two young cats.