Boyd McDonald (born 28 September 1932) is a Canadian pianist,

fortepianist A fortepiano , sometimes referred to as a pianoforte, is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1698 up to the early 19th century. Mo ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, and music educator. An associate of the

Canadian Music Centre The Canadian Music Centre was founded in 1959 by a group of Canadian composers who saw a need to create a repository for Canadian music. It now holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music, and works to promote the music of its A ...

, his compositional output includes works for choirs, bands, orchestras, and

art song An art song is a Western vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment, and usually in the classical art music tradition. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the collective genre of such songs ...

s. His works have been performed throughout Canada and Europe by ensembles like the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the

Renaissance Singers The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a Periodization, period in History of Europe, European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an e ...

, the

Scholars of London A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

, Symphony Hamilton, the Waterloo Chamber Players, and the

Wellington Winds Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

among others.

Early life and education

Born in Tuberose, Saskatchewan, McDonald studied at The Royal Conservatory of Music where he earned an associate diploma in 1951 and a licentiate diploma in 1953. Among his teachers were

Murray Adaskin Murray Adaskin, (March 28, 1906 – May 6, 2002) was a Toronto-born Canadian violinist, composer, conductor and teacher. After playing violin with a band, he studied composition and became the director of the Music department of the University of ...

( music composition) and

Lyell Gustin Lyell Gustin (May 31, 1895 – February 8, 1988) was a pianist, teacher and adjudicator active in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, from 1920 to the mid-1980s. Early life Gustin was born on May 31, 1895, in Fitch Bay, Quebec. He was educated there and a ...

(piano). A grant from the Canada Council enabled him to pursue further studies in Paris from 1957 to 1960 with Nadia Boulanger (composition) and Jean Casadesus (piano). He also studied composition in the summers with

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

, Darius Milhaud, and

Stefan Wolpe Stefan Wolpe (25 August 1902, Berlin – 4 April 1972, New York City) was a German-Jewish-American composer. He was associated with interdisciplinary modernism, with affiliations ranging from the Bauhaus, Berlin agitprop theater and the kibbutz mo ...

Career

In 1963 McDonald won the Leschetizky Debut Prize which led to his New York City recital debut at

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

. In 1966 McDonald formed a

piano duo According to the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', there are two kinds of piano duet: "those for two players at one instrument, and those in which each of the two pianists has an instrument to themself." In American usage the former is ...

with Garth Beckett, and the pair continued to perform together up through the 1990s. The duo toured North America and Europe together on several occasions. They made their London debut at Wigmore Hall in 1972 and their New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1978. The pair commissioned works by such composers as Bruce Mather, Robert Turner, Jack Behrens, and Owen Underhill. In 1967 both men joined the music faculty of the University of Manitoba where they studied the duo piano repertoire with

Alma Brock-Smith Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...

while teaching. They left the UM in 1976 to join the faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU). At WLU McDonald was co-ordinator of the summer baroque and classical workshop in addition to teaching classes in piano and music theory. McDonald began to pursue studies in the music of the 18th- and early 19th-century fortepiano during the early 1980s. He obtained a Steinway instrument that replicated a five-octave, mid-1780s fortepiano in 1984. In 1986 he toured Manitoba and Saskatchewan giving lecture/recitals in the fortepiano repertoire. In 1988 he acquired an 1816 six-and-a-half-octave Streicher piano. In 1989 he toured Nova Scotia as a member of the Mannheim Trio with soprano Valerie Kinslow and clarinetist

Sherman Friedland Sherman Friedland was Associate Professor of Fine Arts as well as an active clarinetist, professor of music and conductor at Concordia University in Montreal from 1960 until his retirement in 1997. He was conductor and Music Director of the Con ...

. He gave a fortepiano recital tour throughout Canada in 1990; notably including in his repertoire works written for him by Behrens and Underhill. He was also busy performing with the Classical Trio during the 1980s and 1990s, a chamber group he formed with baroque violinist Jeanne Lamon and baroque cellist Christina Mahler. He also made several appearances at the

Boston Early Music Festival The Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) is a non-profit organization founded in 1980 in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. to promote historical music performance. It presents an annual concert series in Boston and New York City, produces opera recordi ...

serving as baritone David Falk's accompanist. He also appeared numerous times as a soloist on the CBC Radio program ''Two New Hours''. Throughout his career, McDonald composed musical works in several genres. including the 1998 ''Borders with Shadows'', reflecting his visit to Natal. Since 2009, he has chaired the board of directors of the Canadian baroque ensembl
Nota Bene Baroque
in the Waterloo Region of Ontario, Canada. In 2010, McDonald was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 22nd annual Kitchener-Waterloo arts awards."Local artists celebrated"
8 Jun 2010, ''Waterloo Region Record''. He continues to teach part-time at the WLU as a professor emeritus.

References

External links

Official Website of Boyd McDonald
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Boyd Living people 1932 births Canadian composers Canadian male composers Canadian classical pianists The Royal Conservatory of Music alumni Academic staff of the University of Manitoba Academic staff of Wilfrid Laurier University Pupils of Darius Milhaud Canadian male pianists