Betti McDonald
Betti McDonald, acclaimed dramatic soprano
and voice teacher, has performed as a soloist in opera and oratorio and on the
concert stage. She has also given numerous recitals in distinguished venues and
is acclaimed for her teaching and mentoring of promising singers.
McDonald was born in Colon in
the Republica de Panama to missionary parents. While
she was still a child, her parents relocated to Trinidad in the West Indies,
where Betti, who had started piano earlier with her
mother, continued study on the instrument for nine years. She completed a Final
Certificate in Piano from the Royal School of Music, London.
While still a teenager, Betti began studying voice at Andrews University and
subsequently continued voice study at the University of Michigan and at Indiana
University. From her earliest years, her voice was regarded as extraordinary.
She studied singing with Gerald Ferguson and Joseph Klein, widely known vocal
scientist, lecturer, conductor, and author of Singing Technique: How to
Avoid Vocal Trouble.
McDonald has performed in
numerous opera productions and oratorio presentations and sung on the concert
stage, appearing with noted conductors Leonard Bernstein, Lorin
Maazel, Eric Leinsdorf, William Steinberg, and George
Szell. She was a favorite singer of composers Virgil Thompson, Ned Rorem, and Gian Carlo Menotti and was often invited to sing in world
premieres of their works.
McDonald premiered numerous
works by Rorem, who regarded her voice as "the most beautiful voice in the
world," with the composer himself playing the piano. In 1973, she was a
featured singer at Rorem’s 50th birthday celebration in Alice Tully
Hall in New York, where she sang his song cycle The Last Poems of Wallace
Stevens. Twenty-five years later, McDonald’s daughter, soprano Monique
McDonald, was also the featured singer at the very same venue for Rorem’s 75th
birthday celebration.
McDonald has performed
throughout the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, and Europe to
widespread acclaim. A music critic at the Boston Globe regarded her as
"one of the finest young singers of our time." A New York Times
critic described her voice as "shimmering and warm," while a writer
in the Harvard Post observed that "she commands a voice of great
sensitivity and power. Her performance was virtually flawless and her ability
to cut through above the fortissimo of the entire orchestra was astounding . .
. ." She can be heard on the RCA Netherlands Deogram
recording of Songs of the Earth, accompanied by pianist Bob Wilson,
singing Spanish compositions by Enrique Granados and Fernando Obradors, and Negro spirituals.
McDonald has had extensive
teaching experience. She held positions at the Curtis Institute of Music,
Albano Ballet and Performing Arts Academy in Connecticut, Caribbean Union
College, and Thayer Conservatory at Atlantic Union College. She has also taught
voice at Lake Michigan College and has given several lecture recitals, master
classes, and workshops throughout the world.
A partial listing of locales
for these activities would include the University of Pennsylvania; University
of the West Indies in Jamaica; Walla Walla College, now University; and the A
Coeur Joie Choral Festival and Le Kleebach, both in
France. The government of China invited McDonald to teach pedagogy to a group
of their teachers, after which the Bastille Opera in Paris asked her to head
its Young Artist Program.
In 1983 McDonald founded The
Institute for Musical Arts, an intensive training center for singers in all
genres, including classical as well as jazz, pop, and musical theatre. In her
role as director and master teacher of IMA, she has established a reputation as
a leader in the field of vocal education. She also founded and was General
Director of the Waterbury Opera Theater in Connecticut.
Numerous singers have
benefited from her insightful teaching, which regards the study of voice as a
way to integrate the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of singing
and life. She is lauded for her understanding and teaching of the physical
aspects of respiration and vocal production.
Classical Singer magazine named McDonald as Teacher of
the Year in 2004. She was selected from five finalists from around the world,
praised for her talent to both teach and nurture her students.
ds/2008
Sources: The
Institute for Musical Arts biography (2008); Other online
sources; Program biographical Information on file at Walla Walla University.