Ronald McKean is currently Director of Music Ministry and organist at St. Joseph's Catholic Church at historic Mission San Jose (home to the Spanish style Opus 14 of Rosales Organ Builders) in Fremont. For the preceding 26 years, he was Director of Music and Organist at First Presbyterian Church in Oakland, where he gave weekly organ and harpsichord concerts featuring a vast repertoire and improvisations in styles ranging from early to modern. In 1993, he directed the installation and played the dedicatory recital of Rosales Opus 16, the 60-stop tracker action organ being used for this workshop.

Mr. McKean has given improvisation workshops and concerts and taught at Stanford University, Indiana University, Witchita University, MusicSources (for the Historically Informed), Pipe Organ Encounters for Young People (San Diego, CA) and for American Guild of Organists. He has been Professor of Organ and Harpsichord at California State University, Hayward, and Music Director for the Junior Bach festival in 2003. Among his CD recordings are Mussorgskys: Pictures at an exhibition and McKean: Three Etudes for Organ 1998 (Rosales Organ in Oakland). Frescobaldi on Fisk (Stanford University, and Sounds of Eternity Vol 1 and II for percussion and electronics. His Compositions include Sacred Harp Suite for violin and harpsichord, Church Sonatas for Brass and Organ, Layers and Lines for String Quartet, Electronic ensemble, Songs of Life for Piano and Voice, Cold Mountain Poems for Chorus and Dewdrop and Scintillation for Orchestra. In 2003 The Berkeley Symphony performed his MoonPhase for orchestra in their program Under Construction for Composers. In March 2008 Mr. McKean won first prize in the Alienor Harpsichord composition award for his composition Sacred Harp Dyads (violin and harpsichord).