Robert McDonald

Pianist Robert McDonald has toured extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. He has performed with major orchestras in the U.S. and was a recital partner with violinist Isaac Stern for many years. He has participated in the Marlboro, Casals, and Lucerne festivals, performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and for broadcasts over BBC Television. He has also appeared with the Takács, Vermeer, Juilliard, Brentano, Borromeo, American, Shanghai, and St. Lawrence string quartets as well as with Musicians from Marlboro. McDonald’s prizes include the gold medal at the Busoni International Piano Competition, the top prize at the William Kapell International Competition, and the Deutsche Schallplatten Critics Award. His teachers include Theodore Rehl, Seymour Lipkin, Rudolf Serkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Beveridge Webster, and Gary Graffman.

He holds degrees from Lawrence University, the Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard, and the Manhattan School of Music. A member of the piano faculty at Juilliard since 1999, McDonald has taught at the Curtis Institute since 2007, where he holds the Penelope P. Watkins Chair in piano studies. During the summer, he is the artistic director of New Mexico’s Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival, and also serves on the faculty of Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival.