Free Guitar Concert

St. Damien Parish News Release

The St. Damien Parish and Remember the River invites the community to enjoy a free concert
presented by guitarist, composer and storyteller Susan McDonald at St. Damien Church on
Tuesday, March 25 at 5 p.m. The program will include Latin American music and will
feature pieces inspired by sea creatures, as well as music McDonald composed during her travels in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

When her friends Chip Scarlett, a marine photographer, and his wife Susan, a writer, invited
McDonald to join them at their home in Molokai, she embraced the opportunity to not only
experience the humpback whales in their spring migration but also to get to know a tight knit
community that holds such a deep respect for nature.

“We have so much to learn from communities like Molokai,” McDonald offered. “They are the
antithesis of the greed and destruction that has overrun so many places. If humanity is to survive and thrive, we must learn to value community and the land that supports us all. Without those things, we have nothing.”

As a concert artist, McDonald’s performances have spanned four continents, ranging from venues such as Carnegie Hall to refugee camps along the Syrian border. Her recordings and live performances have been heard on radio and television broadcasts worldwide.

Her career and priorities shifted when her father, the harpsichordist and composer Myron
McDonald fell ill with cancer. She took a hiatus from touring to spend her days and nights
playing and composing music for cancer and hospice patients and their families, from whom she grew to understand that the greatest power in music lay in its ability to provide comfort and hope. From that point on, while still maintaining a busy concert career, she has dedicated herself to sharing her music with those experiencing trauma.

A passionate advocate of the arts in the classroom and with marginalized communities, McDonald works domestically with Young Audiences of Houston and serves as Artistic Director for the Fine Arts Foundation. She has taught masterclasses in North and South America and Europe, as well as created and directed guitar programs in Iraq and Lebanon.

McDonald lives outside of Austin, Texas, where she enjoys hiking, beekeeping and gardening with her pet peacock Quetzalcoatl, a.k.a.”Binky.”