Seoyon Macdonald

Steeped in musical tradition yet eager to forge new ways, Korean-American pianist Seoyon MacDonald enjoys a varied and innovative career. She is drawn equally to solo and collaborative music-making, and has appeared on concert stages in the United States, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, and Korea. She is a co-founder of the Boston Art Song Society, one of the pioneering art song companies in the United States, and is an active vocal coach and pianist currently based in Los Angeles.

Ms. MacDonald’s musicological and entrepreneurial projects reach in many directions. A recent adventure was her debut as a Hollywood recording pianist, participating in scoring sessions of music by Kris Bowers for King Richard, Will Smith’s new tennis movie. She is currently at work on a book on the legacy of collaborative pianists in the United States, and a digital recording of an unfinished Shostakovich prelude and fugue, recently reconstructed by Krzystof Meyer. She is also studying music industry and finance, with an eye to establishing a music NFT and virtual streaming business. She is a member of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 47.

Recent highlights include performances in Weill Recital Hall and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. In February of 2020, Ms. MacDonald performed Steven Mackey's Beautiful Passing with the Juilliard Orchestra, conducted by David Robertson, at Stern Auditorium. Her December 2019 orchestral piano debut was as a member of the Juilliard Orchestra, in a performance of Copland’s Symphony No. 3 under the baton of Carlos Miguel Prieto, at Alice Tully Hall. Ms. MacDonald was also a member of the contemporary ensemble AXIOM at the Juilliard School.

In 2019, with tenor James Ley, she was selected by Renée Fleming to participate in the inaugural season of the SongStudio at Carnegie Hall. Ms. MacDonald accepted the invitation to be a vocal collaborative piano fellow at the Aspen Music Festival in 2018. Other festival appearances include performances at the Franz Schubert Institut in Austria and SongFest at The Colburn School.

During the summer of 2019, she lived and studied in Florence, Italy, as the recipient of a Lucrezia Boris Grant and language scholarship from the Italian Cultural Institute of New York. As a young concerto competition winner at the University of Northwestern—Saint Paul, she performed Beethoven’s Concerto in C Minor with the university’s orchestra in 2011. The following year, she co-founded the Northwestern Trio, which won the Minnesota state level and was runner-up at the West Central Division of the MTNA Chamber Music Competition.

Ms. MacDonald has studied song literature with esteemed musicians including Graham Johnson, Martin Katz, Margo Garrett, Roger Vignoles, Julius Drake, Helmut Deutsch, Elly Ameling, and Robert Holl. She was previously a staff pianist at New England Conservatory, a rehearsal pianist at the Boston Ballet, and a choir pianist for the MIT Women's Chorale. She has also worked with the Minnesota Opera Summer Outreach Camp, Opera Brittenica, and Lowell House Opera at Harvard University.

A native of South Korea, Ms. MacDonald began her piano studies at the age of 5. In her teenage years, she attended the No. 2 Russian Music School in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, under the tutelage of Olga Petrovna, and later the Basetovsky Music Institution in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Collaborative Piano from the Juilliard School, a Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano from New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance, magna cum laude, from the University of Northwestern – Saint Paul. Her instructors include Cameron Stowe, Jonathan Feldman, JJ Penna, Barbara Rogers, and Flora Gadelevna. Currently pursuing a DMA degree at the University of Southern California, she studies with Professor Alan Smith and serves as a Teaching Assistant in Keyboard Collaborative Arts.