Composer Biography
Appointed to the Order of Canada in 2022 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. 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, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, the United States, Ukraine and Canada. Thirty-five of his compositions have been recorded on twenty compact discs 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 recently taken on tour in British Columbia as part of the WWI centenary. The Orchid Garden, a concerto for saxophone and orchestra, was recently premiered by Jeremy Brown and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, and the composer was the featured soloist in the Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke premiere of Electric Pleasures, his concerto for electric guitar and orchestra, directed by Stéphane Laforest. His most recent album, Music of the City and the Stars, features MacDonald as 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. 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 recently retired professor of composition 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.
