presenting

ALEX MCDONALD, piano

in a recital of works on the theme of water by Franz Liszt

SUNDAY, APRIL 12 at 3:00 PM
GREAT HALL
FREE COVERED PARKING AND ADMISSION

Since his orchestral debut at age 11, pianist Alex McDonald has soloed with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Utah Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has performed across the United States, as well as Israel, Mexico, Canada, Japan and South Korea, and has been a featured performer on PBS, WRR, NPR, and WQXR. Awards and fellowships include second prize at the 2007 New Orleans International Piano Competition, and second prize at the 2001 Gina Bachauer International Young Artist Piano Competition. In 2008, he was named a Harvey Fellow by the Mustard Seed Foundation. He was a participant in the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition. Active as a chamber musician, McDonald’s program “Music for Animals” with Cathy Lysinger and Andrey Ponochevny was hailed by Theater Jones as one of its “Concerts of the Year” for 2016.

Dr. McDonald is currently the festival director for Basically Beethoven, a thriving summer concert series in the downtown Dallas Arts District. Alex has taught at Texas Woman’s University and Richland College, as well as at The Juilliard School, where he was a Teaching Fellow for the Literature and Materials and Piano Minor departments. His private piano students have been admitted to Juilliard and Eastman, and have performed at Carnegie’s Weill Hall and on WRR-FM. The Texas Music Teacher’s Association (TMEA) awarded him its 2017 Outstanding Achievement Award. Deeply concerned about a healthy integration of life with music, he actively pursued community formation as a Resident Advisor in The Juilliard School residence hall, and as president of the Juilliard Christian Fellowship.

Alex received his pre-college training under Lois Nielson, his Bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory with Academic Honors and Distinction in Performance under Russell Sherman, and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School under Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin. His doctoral dissertation, a source study on manuscripts and editions for Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B Minor, has been cited in the most recent edition of the sonata by Alfred Publishers, edited by Nancy Bricard.

Alex and his wife Rachel, a violist, sometimes play chamber music together; their artistic collaboration includes son Micah and daughter Ella Joy, both of whom have their mother’s eyes and their daddy’s hair.