John MacDonald (Canadian musician)

John Roy MacDonald [http://www.johnmacdonald.de] (b. 1948 Gimli, Manitoba, Canada) is a
musician playing the French horn. His family moved to Ottawa three years after his birth. He was influenced by his horn-playing elder brothers, Ian [http://www.cipi.ulaval.ca/fileadmin/template/main/publications/bulletins/2003/cipi_october2003.pdf] and James [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0002134] and began studying the horn at twelve. He attended the University of Toronto with Eugene Rittich in 1970. With a stipend from the Canada Council of Arts and winning 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 Janacek Academy. In 1971 he won the Silver Medal at the International Competition in Geneva and in 1974 the First Prize at the Int. Competition of the Prague Spring Music Festival. In 1978 he won the ARD International Music Competition German Broadcasting Union in Munich. After early experience as first horn with the Hamilton Philharmonic as well as extensive experience free-lancing in Toronto, he did three years as First Horn with the German Bamberger Symphoniker from 1972-1975. Since 1976 he has been engaged as Principal Solo-Horn in the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, recently renowned for its recordings of all the Symphonic works of Mahler, Bruckner, Scriabin and Berlioz. Recordings, solo-concerts, chamber music, master classes and freelancing with other symphony orchestras have taken him literally right around the world. John MacDonald plays Engelbert Schmid Horns. He still resides in Germany but has recently acquired and expanded a seasonal residence in Canada.