John MacDonald (Canadian musician)

John Roy MacDonald is a musician who plays the French horn and has won several major competitions.

He was born on July 13, 1948 in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada. His family moved to Ottawa three years after his birth. He was influenced by his horn-playing elder brothers, Ian and James[1] and began studying the horn at twelve. He studied at the University of Toronto with Eugene Rittich and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1970. With a stipend from the Canada Council of Arts and having won the Talent Competition of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he furthered his studies in London with Barry Tuckwell and then in Brno, Czechoslovakia with Prof. Frantisek Solc at the Janáček Academy.[2] In 1971 he won the silver medal at the International Competition in Geneva and in 1974 the first prize at the Prague Spring International Music Competition. In 1978 he won the ARD International Music Competition of the German Broadcasting Union in Munich.[2]

After early experience as first horn with the Hamilton Philharmonic as well as extensive experience free-lancing in Toronto, from 1972 to 1975 he was first horn with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany. Since 1976 he has been principal solo horn in the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which he has recorded all the symphonic works of Mahler, Bruckner, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Berlioz. He also performs and records solo, and in chamber ensembles, conducts master classes, and freelances with other symphony orchestras around the world. In 2011 John MacDonald retired after more than 40 years of dedicated work. He resides in Germany but has recently acquired and expanded a seasonal residence in Canada.