Harpist Susann McDonald has Died, Aged 90

A founding member and the first Artistic Director of the World Harp Congress, McDonald was an influential soloist and pedagogue

The harpist Susann McDonald, who was a founding member and the first Artistic Director of the World Harp Congress, has passed away at the age of 90.

Born in Rock Island, Illinois, in 1935, McDonald was a child prodigy on the harp, and in her mid-teens she went to Paris to study with Henriette Renié. When she was just 20 years old, she became the first American to receive the Premier Prix de Harpe from the Paris Conservatoire.

Her career soon took off, and she performed for an audience of 60,000 at the Chicagoland Music Festival at Soldier Field, as well as signing with Columbia Artists for management.

She was Artistic Director of the World Harp Congress from its founding in 1983 until 2011, and in 2008, she received the World Harp Congress Award of Recognition for Service to the International Harp Community in honor of her work.

Alongside harpist Linda Wood Rollo, McDonald founded Music Works-Harp Editions, and the pair wrote and published arrangements and teaching methods that are now used across the world.

An influential pedagogue, McDonald taught at the universities of Arizona and Southern California, as well as California State College at Los Angeles. She later served as head of the harp department at the Juilliard School, and from 1981, she was chair of the harp department at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

"Susann McDonald has probably been the person who has most inspired me as a musician, as a teacher and as a person," said Isabelle Perrin, WHC Artistic Director. "During my three years of studies, her dedication to music, the harp and her students opened my eyes and ears in so many ways. She taught me openness, flexibility, friendship to classmates and so much more."

"So, Susann, I just want to say in my name as well as in the name of the WHC: THANK YOU. Thank you for being the amazing harpist, teacher and person you always have been; thank you for your life of dedication to music and to the harp community. And not least, thank you for all you have taught me through the many decades I have known you. The harp world as well as myself will miss you terribly."