Jean Macdonald

Macdonald, Jean

Jean (Hastings) Macdonald. Mezzo-soprano, organist, b Strathlorne, Cape Breton, NS, 11 Dec 1895, d Toronto 17 Nov 1979. She studied 1913-14 at the Halifax Cons (Maritime Conservatory of Music), 1915-16 with Lee Pattison (piano) at the New England Cons, and then privately in Boston with Rose Stewart (voice). Alexander Graham Bell took a great interest in her career. She taught 1924-30 at Boston's Academy of Speech and 1928-31 at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. During the 1920s and 1930s she appeared as soloist with the Boston Festival Orchestra, the Boston SO (under Koussevitzky), and the TSO (in an 'All-Canada Symphony Hour' broadcast 6 Apr 1930 over the CNR network) and also with the Cecilia Society of Boston, the Harvard Glee Club, the McDowell Club Chorus, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Wellesley College Choir. In 1922 she sang at the funeral of Alexander Graham Bell at Mrs Bell's request. During the 1920s she often performed with the Ross Scottish Concert Company, which toured throughout New England, New York State, and New Jersey, and in 1929 she sang at the Scottish Festival, Annapolis Royal, NS. In 1931 she moved to Toronto, where she appeared in recitals with Alberto Guerrero. Until the early 1940s she also gave joint recitals in eastern Canada and the USA with her sister Anna - pianist, b Strathlorne, NS, 15 Jul 1894, L MUS (Dalhousie) 1921, LRAM 1933; a pupil of Bruce Symonds and Tobias Matthay, a teacher 1935-42 at the Halifax Cons, and frequently during the 1930s a recitalist on CBC radio.