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Born in Guelph in 1958, Andrew Paul MacDonald earned a DMA in Composition at The University of Michigan in 1985. For the past two decades his compositions have won many prestigious prizes, including the 1995 Juno Award for “Best Classical Composition” for his Violin Concerto. His many compositions have been performed across the country by such notable ensembles as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Esprit Orchestra, l'Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, The Evergreen Club and the I Musici de Montréal. He has had works commissioned by outstanding orchestras, chamber ensembles, solo performers, music competitions, the Canadian Opera Company and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His works are frequently broadcast on CBC and Société Radio-Canada, and have been performed in England, Norway, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey, the United States and Canada. A number of his compositions have been recorded on twelve compact discs to date, and two recent ones for violin and piano on the ATMA and Centrdiscs labels were both nominated for the 2005 East Coast Music Award.  Of these, Jasper Wood's "Great Square of Pegasus" recording of MacDonald's works won that award, as well as the 2005 Canadian Independent Music Award.

Vice-President and Council member of the Canadian League of Composers from 1993-97 and currently Artistic Director of Ensemble Musica Nova, MacDonald performs in concert as a classical and electric guitarist and as a conductor, and is chairman and professor of composition and electronic music at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Québec. Biographical articles on MacDonald are to be found in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2ed., 2001) and the Canadian Who's Who (annually since 1998).