All concerts in the piano series are free and open to the public, and they each take place in the Concert Hall Theater on AC’s Washington Street Campus.
The Juilliard-trained McDonalds, who operate the McDonald Music Studios in Plano, Texas, will perform their arrangement of five movements from the Nutcracker, Piazzolla’s Grand Tango, Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne and more.
Pianist Alex McDonald made his orchestral debut at age 11 and has since performed across the United States and in Israel, Mexico, Canada, Japan and South Korea. He has soloed with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Mexico, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the Utah Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Mr. McDonald both graduated from and taught at Juilliard School. He received the 2017 Outstanding Achievement Award in teaching from the Texas Music Teacher’s Association, and he presently is director of the Basically Beethoven Festival, a thriving summer concert series in downtown Dallas’ Arts District.
Rachel Li McDonald is an accomplished violist who has actively performed and taught throughout North America and Japan since her debut chamber performance at Carnegie Hall was broadcast on PBS.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from The Julliard School, as well as a master’s degree from Rice University. As a performer, Ms. McDonald has soloed with the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic and performed as an orchestral musician in the Colburn Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, and Shepherd School of Music Orchestra.
AC’s 2021-2022 Art Force Piano Series kicked off in October with “Thirty Dirty Fingers,” in which three current and former AC faculty members simultaneously shared the keyboard to deliver a range of classical music, from Debussy to Sousa.
The three remaining presentations in the five-concert, yearlong series will be on these Tuesday night’s in 2022:
Feb. 1, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. – “2022 Jam with Love!” – featuring AC Music Faculty.
March 1, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. – “Forgotten Masterpieces of Central European Piano Music” – featuring Slawomir Dobrzanski.
April 5, 2022 – “Beethoven 250” – featuring David Palmer, artistic director of Chamber Music Amarillo.