Susan McDonald has delighted audiences the world over- from the Amazon to Iraq and community concerts to Carnegie
Hall. Her audiences have ranged from Holocaust survivors in Vienna to the President of the United States, and her
music has been enthusiastically received in concert halls, universities, festivals, schools and hospitals. At her Carnegie
Hall debut, the New York Concert Review described her performance as "...one of the most satisfying recitals in
recent memory...all the skill and insight that a Bel Canto master brings to a Bellini cadenza...masterful Bach playing..."
A protegee of the legendary
Pepe Romero, Susan started playing guitar at the age of six. Her studies took her from the University of St. Thomas
in Houston to the Mozarteum in Salzburg and finally to a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada.
Susan's many recordings and live performances have been heard on radio and television broadcasts worldwide.
Becoming known as an exciting composer with recent features in Soundboard and on the
internationally syndicated radio program Classical Guitar Alive (her music has been described as "brilliant"
by New Classics) , Susan has created an art form which she calls "Animal Ballets," in which she combines her
original music and video footage to create sublime live performances in which animals are the "dancers" and she is their "orchestra."
Her newest Animal Ballet, Yasuní: Dances from the Rainforest features her music combined with video footage
from her travels deep into the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Increasingly, her passion and energy is being directed towards bringing music to people in regions
of conflict or isolation. Through her nonprofit organization, Remember the River, she works to support artists
in conflict zones through teaching, mentorship and donations of musical instruments and art supplies.
As
a passionate advocate of arts in the classroom and with marginalized communities, she works domestically with Young Audiences of Houston and serves as Artistic Director for Fine Arts Foundation. She is Director of Guitar for YES Academies
in Iraq and Lebanon and has recently finished serving
her fourth term on the Touring Roster of Texas Commission on the Arts and the Mid-America
Arts Alliance. Susan McDonald has released ten CDs on the Mayfly label.
