She is the author of highly cited academic work in music theory, specifically on bitonality, mode and interval in the music of Karol Szymanowski, the role of the piano introduction in Franz Schubert's Lieder, and the octave expansion and sonata form of Grażyna Bacewicz's Second Piano Sonata. She has been cited by Allen Forte, co-winner of the 1997 Wallace Berry Distinguished Book Award of the Society for Music Theory for her significant contribution to his 1995 book, "The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era, 1924–1950: A Study in Musical Design.". Dave Headlam, winner of the 1997 Deems Taylor award in the Symphonic Books category of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, cited her for her contribution on interval cycles in Karol Szymanowski's works, in his 1996 book "The Music of Alban Berg". Kristine H. Burns in her 2002 book, "Women and Music in America Since 1900: An Encyclopedia " cited her for her work on the music of Franz Schubert and Karol Szymanowski. She has also been cited in reviews of music in the 2004 edition of "New Historical Anthology of Music by Women" edited by James R. Briscoe.
Contribution to music's digital revolution
McNamee is the co-writer of the Moonalice song "It's 4:20 Somewhere". The lyrics of the song were referenced in the 2011 book, "The Fall of the House of Forbes: The Inside Story of the Collapse of a Media Empire" by Stewart Pinkerton. In August 2012 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that the digital logs for "It's 4:20 Somewhere" had been acquired for its library and archives, describing the Moonalice logs as helping to "...tell the story of music's digital revolution; specifically the rise of direct-from-artist distribution. Moonalice is the first band without a label to achieve one million downloads of a song from its own servers, direct-from-artist. "It's 4:20 Somewhere" has been downloaded over 4.6 million times".
Contribution to musical theater
Having retired from performing with Moonalice in October 2012 to pursue a career in musical theater, she co-wrote a musical, Love Bytes, together with Roger Love. Six of the songs from Love Bytes were performed during a public performance in October 2012. She is collaborating on a second musical, Other World, with Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, Adrienne Campbell-Holt, and Weta Workshop, initially developing the project as part of the Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals in 2014. Other World was selected as the inaugural project at the 2016 Spring Space in Saratoga Springs, NY, and held its First Preview at Bucks County Playhouse on March 14th, 2020.
Personal
She has a B.A. in Music from Wellesley and a PhD in Music Theory from Yale University. She has been married to the venture capitalist Roger McNamee since 1983 and, with her husband, is a co-founder of the Haight Street Art Center, which will be run as a co-op for artists, and will include a fine art print shop as well as exhibition space.
