Joanna McDonald

Joanna McDonald (age 21) is a senior at Rice University, majoring in music composition. She first began composing lyrics to songs at age six, which eventually developed into complete works by age 12. She wrote her first instrumental piece for solo guitar at age 15, winning several awards at the University of Tulsa's annual Béla Rózsa composition competition. Since then, she has written numerous chamber and solo works performed by ensembles such as International Contemporary Ensemble. Throughout high school she has presented her music at places such as The University of Oklahoma's collegiate Composer's Workshop and Curtis Summerfest. Most recently, Joanna has just finished a choral work commissioned by The May Festival called, “Untamed.” In the piece, she collaborated with an ASL interpreter/dancer, who acted out and translated the text sung by the choir for a non-hearing audience in attendance at the concert. Her goal was to create an inclusive and meaningful concert experience for both hearing and deaf individuals. In the future, she is interested in pursuing further these types of collaborations with communities and topics outside of music, especially the deaf community.