Simon MacDonald

Phone: 204-284-5113
Email: simonmacd@hotmail.com

Simon MacDonald began playing the violin at age seven in Victoria, British Columbia. He earned his AVCM Teacher and Performance Diploma from the Victoria Conservatory of Music, Bachelor’s degree from New England Conservatory in Boston, and Master’s degree from McGill, in Montreal.

Simon’s principal teachers include Sydney Humphreys, former first violin of the Purcell and Aeolian String Quartets, Malcolm Lowe, concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Israeli violinist Yehonatan Berick. Simon has performed in several international music festivals around Europe and North America, including Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in Germany, The Festival of Two Worlds in Italy, Tanglewood Music Festival, in Massachusetts, and at ArtSpring Music Festival on Saltspring Island, BC. After playing the 1999 season with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans, Simon returned to Canada where he now calls Winnipeg home. In Winnipeg Simon is active as a teacher, orchestral musician, chamber musician, and soloist. He is currently Principal Second of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, a member of the 1st violin section of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and a regular guest with the Brandon Chamber Players and the new music ensemble GroundSwell. He maintains a private studio in Winnipeg, and regularly coaches the Winnipeg Youth Orchestras and University of Manitoba Symphony Orchestra. He has also been faculty at the U of M Preparatory Division Summer Chamber Camp, the Brandon Summer Suzuki Institute, the International Music Camp at the Peace Gardens, and in 1999 he taught through the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont.

For the past several summers he has taken a break from the classical genre to act as concertmaster for various theatre productions including The King and I, the Broadway Touring production of Chicago, and a memorable moment where he was on the roof top for Manitoba Theatre Centre’s production of Fiddler on the Roof.

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