Andrew Paul MacDonald
Honoured in a special Déclaration at the Assemblée nationale du Québec in 2024 and appointed to the Order of Canada in 2021 for his lifetime achievements in composition and performance, the works of Andrew Paul MacDonald have won many prestigious prizes, including the 1995 JUNO Award for “Best Classical Composition” for his Violin Concerto No. 1. His many compositions have been performed across the country by such notable ensembles as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Esprit Orchestra, l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, The Evergreen Club and the I Musici de Montréal. He has had works commissioned by outstanding orchestras, chamber ensembles, solo performers, music competitions, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
His works are frequently broadcast on CBC and Société Radio-Canada, and have been performed in Australia, China, England, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, the United States, Ukraine and Canada. Thirty-six of his compositions have been recorded on twenty albums to date, and two for violin and piano on the ATMA and Centrediscs labels were both nominated for the 2005 East Coast Music Award. Of these, Jasper Wood’s recording of MacDonald’s works won that award, as well as the 2005 Canadian Independent Music Award. MacDonald’s second opera, Mary’s Wedding, premiered by Pacific Opera Victoria in 2011 and broadcast on CBC’s Saturday Afternoon At The Opera, was later taken on tour in British Columbia as part of the WWI centenary. A Distant Point in the Vast Heavens, his second violin concerto, was recently premiered in Toronto by violin soloist Christina Bouey and Sinfonia Toronto conducted by Giulio Marazia, and his second double concerto, The Triumph of Saraswati, composed for tabla, marimba, and orchestra, was premiered in Ottawa by soloists Catherine Meunier, Shawn Mativetsky, and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra directed by Tania Miller. His most recent album, Music of the City and the Stars, features MacDonald as guitar soloist with the Quatuor Saguenay playing his compositions, Lyra and Restless City. MacDonald also has a passion for writing jazz and blues compositions which he has recorded with the MacDonald-Breton-Sullivan Trio, and The Curvature of Blue.
Past Vice-President and Council member of the Canadian League of Composers and founding Artistic Director of Ensemble Musica Nova, MacDonald performs in concert as guitarist, lutenist and conductor, and is a Professor Emeritus of Music at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke (Lennoxville), Québec.
Biographical articles on MacDonald are to be found in:
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2ed., 2001);
the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada (www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com);
and the Canadian Who’s Who.
Visit the website at:
www.andrewpaulmacdonald.com