Composer Bio

Photo — Nathan Oldham

Earl MacDonald is a composer and pianist who approaches musical tradition as a starting point rather than a constraint, increasingly orienting his work toward contemporary social realities. His recent projects address climate change, migration, and systemic injustice through musical forms that prioritize clarity, proportion, and ethical attention. Rather than offering commentary, his music creates spaces for careful listening and reflection.

MacDonald’s current project, Songs for a Shifting World, reimagines the song cycle as a contemporary, living form. Drawing on classical vocal tradition while remaining attentive to the present moment, the work confronts ecological crisis, human displacement, and fragile resilience through a deliberately restrained musical language. Scored for bass-baritone, piano, cello, and percussion, the cycle explores how the intimacy and immediacy of voice and chamber ensemble can hold complexity, stillness, and ethical attention.

Recognized in both Canada and the United States, MacDonald is a two-time JUNO nominee, a recipient of a national composition award from the U.S. Air Force Band, and composer of the title work for a Grammy-nominated recording. He has released seven recordings spanning chamber works and large ensemble compositions. His work is marked by clarity, restraint, and structural focus, and has been recognized with honors including the Connecticut Office of the Arts’ Artistic Excellence Award.

Rooted in early classical study at The Royal Conservatory of Music and strengthened by intensive theoretical and aural training at McGill and Rutgers universities, MacDonald’s compositional voice reflects both formal rigor and contemporary artistic concerns. His work has also been shaped by sustained engagement with the jazz tradition, including his tenure as musical director, pianist, and arranger for the Maynard Ferguson Big Bop Nouveau Band—an experience that continues to inform his approach to pacing, narrative direction, and the shaping of dramatic arc.

Professor of Music at the University of Connecticut, MacDonald emphasizes artistic integrity, deep listening, and global literacy across both his teaching and creative practice.

Artist Bio

Earl MacDonald is a composer, pianist, and educator whose work draws from jazz, classical music, and global traditions while resisting the comfort of neutrality. His recent projects engage climate change, migration, and systemic injustice not as themes to illustrate, but as conditions to reckon with through sound. When his music addresses the world directly, it asks for sustained attention rather than agreement.

A two-time JUNO nominee for Jazz Album of the Year and recipient of the Sammy Nestico Award, MacDonald has released seven recordings spanning chamber ensembles to full jazz orchestra. His dectet album Open Borders marked a decisive shift in his artistic trajectory, framing composition as a form of civic dialogue—one that privileges structure, restraint, and consequence over slogan or spectacle. The project received the Connecticut Office of the Arts’ Artistic Excellence Award.

MacDonald’s work is grounded in the jazz lineage and shaped by direct transmission. He served as musical director, pianist, and arranger for the Maynard Ferguson Big Bop Nouveau Band, and his composition Wanton Spirit was recorded by Kenny Barron as the title track of a Grammy-nominated album—an early and enduring affirmation of his compositional voice within the tradition.

His interdisciplinary collaborations reflect an interest in art as a site of ethical inquiry rather than consensus. Projects such as the animated short By Our Love confront ideological division and moral responsibility without resolution, while ongoing cross-media partnerships explore how music can function within broader narratives of activism, memory, and resistance.

As Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Connecticut, MacDonald emphasizes artistic integrity, global literacy, deep listening, and an understanding of music as a socially situated practice. His current project, Songs for a Shifting World, reimagines art song as a living, contemporary form—inviting listeners to remain with complexity when easy conclusions fail.