Sarah MacDonald | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) MacDonald in 2019 | |
| Born | 22 November 1968 Ottawa, Canada |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation(s) | Organist and conductor |
| Website | Official website |
Sarah Elizabeth Arwen MacDonald[1] (born 22 November 1968) is a Canadian-born organist, conductor, and composer, living in the United Kingdom, and currently holds the positions of Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge,[2] and Director of the girl choristers at Ely Cathedral.[3] She has been at Selwyn since 1999, and is the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge Chapel. In 2018 MacDonald was given the honorary award of Associate of the Royal School of Church Music (ARSCM).
MacDonald came to the United Kingdom from Canada in 1992 as organ scholar of Robinson College, Cambridge, after studying piano, organ, and conducting at The Royal Conservatory of Music's Glenn Gould School in Toronto with Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski,[4] and John Tuttle. At Cambridge she read for a degree in music, and studied the organ with David Sanger. Her early musical studies as a pianist took place at the Victoria Conservatory of Music on the west coast of British Columbia.[5]
MacDonald has played numerous recitals and conducted choirs throughout the UK, North America, the Middle East, New Zealand, and much of mainland Europe. She has made over 35 recordings as pianist, organist, conductor, and producer, and currently works most frequently with Regent Records.[6] MacDonald is a winner of the Royal College of Organists’ (RCO) Limpus Prize, and has taught organ and conducting for Eton Choral Courses, Oundle for Organists, the Jennifer Bate Organ Academy, and courses run by the RCO. For its first 10 years, she was a regular director of the Girl Chorister Course at St Thomas' Church Fifth Avenue, in New York City,[7] and is a guest conductor of international RSCM residential courses (Charlotte NC 2016, Rhode Island 2017, Pacific Northwest 2018, Australia 2020).[8] MacDonald holds the Royal College of Organists' Fellowship Diploma (FRCO), is Examiner for the RCO and the Cambridge University Music Faculty, and also spent many years as a member of the Academic Board of the RCO and as a Trustee.[9] She is an Honorary Patron of the Herbert Howells Society and of the Society of Women Organists. In 2023 she was appointed University Organist at Cambridge, the first woman to hold this ceremonial role which dates back to 1670.
MacDonald is active as a composer, and has had works published by Encore Publications,[10] the Royal School of Church Music,[11] August Press,[12] and St James Music Press.[13] In January 2020, the 'Sarah MacDonald Choral Series' with Selah Publishing[14] was launched.
MacDonald also writes a popular monthly column for the American Guild of Organists' magazine 'The American Organist', called "UK Report". In November 2022 a compendium of these essays was published in a book "Cathedrals, Chapels, Organs, Choirs". In August 2023, MacDonald co-edited with Timothy Rogers a new anthology of carols which includes her own descants and last verses for nine popular congregational carols. [15]
In July 2023 it was announced that MacDonald has been elected as the next President of the Royal College of Organists,[16] to take office in July 2024.
