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Soprano Lorna MacDonald enjoys a career of distinction as an acclaimed lyric-coloratura and teacher, and Full Professor of Voice and Voice Pedagogy at the University of Toronto. In 2001 she received a career honor of being named to the Lois Marshall Chair in Voice Studies. From 1994-2007 she served as Head of Voice Studies, a position from which she initiated many successful and innovative additions to the voice studies curriculum at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her record was recognized with Ontario’s prestigious OCUFA Award for “teaching excellence and outstanding contributions to university teaching”. A native of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Prof. MacDonald is a graduate of Dalhousie University and the New England Conservatory of Music, with additional studies in the US and Europe.
Opera, art song, and voice science are among her passions, fulfilled through her teaching of graduate and undergraduate voice and vocal pedagogy. “I am ever mindful that I teach singers - not only singing - and this has allowed me to develop a pedagogy and philosophy which has the highest respect for my students as individuals, for their special talent, and for the art of music. I have achieved a professional balance between education and performance that makes them almost indistinguishable to me.” Her students are found on opera and concert stages from Victoria to St. John’s, and from Santa Fe to Venice.
Having taught and sung across Canada and US, in Wales, Taiwan, France, Ireland, the UK, Germany, Bermuda, she has judged and given classes for the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Canadian Opera Company, the Banff Festival and as judge for the Canadian JUNO awards. A recent master class for the COC was described, “Music lessons from a master…soprano became a master of transformation… in one of the opera company's rehearsal halls. (Toronto Star 2006) Prof. MacDonald is on the faculty of the Toronto International Summer Academy, and Choral Music Education summer festivals.
An active performer, reviewers of Canadian performances have written,
“fiery soprano MacDonald dazzles” (Halifax Herald, 2000)
“showcasing the expressive voice of soprano Lorna MacDonald” (Toronto Star 2004)
“an absolute jewel” (Edmonton Journal 1994)
“MacDonald’s freshness of tone, her clarity of style and diction, and her beautifully expressive musicianship are served by a perfection of technical mastery which allows her to sing both softly and full on any note in her entire range, as meaning and emotional imagery require.” (Halifax Herald 2006)
In the United States (1978-1994), she received awards from the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric, Dallas, Fort Worth Opera guilds and the National Opera Association. The CBC, PBS and NPR have broadcast her performances in opera and oratorio with regional orchestras and international festivals. MacDonald has given the premières of many works written for her by Canadian and American composers, and she thrives in the recital format where she can be found performing with our finest musicians, among them conductor Daniel Beckwith, trumpeter Guy Few, clarinetist Peter Stoll, and pianists Cameron Stowe, William Aide and Che Anne Loewen.
In 2006 she recorded Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate and Buxtehude’s Singet dem Herrn for CBC, she was soloist with conductor Helmuth Rilling in the International Bach Festival in 2004 and 2005, soloist for Brahms’ Requiem in Chicago and Mozart’s Mass in C minor in Oakville, Ontario. A creative programmer, and in recognition of the Mozart 250th anniversary year, she adapted and designed the concert “Marrying Mozart” based on the book by Stephanie Cowell. In it she portrays Josefina, Aloysia and Constanze Weber, the sisters for whom Mozart wrote some of his most beautiful and challenging arias. The 2007 season includes To be sung upon the Water featuring water texts for soprano, clarinet and piano, a Recital for Organ and Soprano in Kingston, Ontario with John Tuttle, and a recital In their words, based on the lives and loves of Lieder composers with pianist Cameron Stowe for the Toronto International Summer Festival. June and July of 2007 find her in the US where she is a Master Teacher for the Master Teachers of Singing week at the Summer Session of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, and a voice workshop presenter for the Voice Foundation Symposium in Philadelphia. Future performances take her to San Antonio and Portland. Ms. MacDonald currently holds the position as a Professor of Voice, Lois Marshall Chair in Voice Studies at the University of Toronto. |
