Music, Music, Music Surrounds Elise MacDonald
By: Virginia Buhr
At nearly every turn on the High Mowing campus, one can hear music being played. This is due in large part to our Music Director, Elise Mac Donald, who teaches five classes of chamber music ensemble, and two classes of jazz as well as a music theory class last semester and history through music this semester. In addition she also does choral work with some students and is also the director of the Concert Band for grades six through eight at the Pine Hill Waldorf School.
Outside of school during the last couple of years, Elise has been playing with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston, New Hampshire Philharmonic in Manchester, Raylynmor Opera Company in Keene as well as independent jazz and classical chamber music gigs for private events (“jazz for 400 corporate attorneys – that kind of thing!”)
Elise started playing the piano in first grade. She began playing the violin in the fifth grade at the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Spring Valley, New York but someone handed her a flute and she this has been her “instrument of choice” ever since. Elise says, “The flute is similar to the human voice. The sound is easy to relate to….
Elise attended Oyster River High School in Durham, New Hampshire. Their wonderful music program included a small concert band, a small symphony orchestra, and a particularly excellent pit orchestra for show. Elise went to All State and All New England music competitions. “I played a lot of music. I never considered doing anything else. Mine is ‘an unexamined life,’” reports Elise, with her characteristic twinkle and sense of humor.
After graduating from the Berklee College of Music in their Music Education Program in 1990, Elise moved to Central Massachusetts and opened a private flute studio where she had 20 students. In 1997 she moved to Peterborough, bought a large house with an attached renovated barn where she and her then husband opened the Two Rivers Music Studio, a Community music school with 7 classrooms and 10 to 12 teachers giving private instrumental and vocal lessons to 150 students. This was a big undertaking which has taken on a life of its own. Though Elise is no longer the directory of the Two Rivers Music Studio, it is still a center of music education.
Musically, one of Elise’s passions is jazz. “Jazz makes great intellectual demands on the player. You have to understand theory and compose on the spot. Jazz is a balance between group work on one hand and individuality on the other."
Elise has just bought a house in New Ipswich that borders a state forest, so she has hundreds of square miles of hiking and cross-country trails at her doorstep. In her free time, she loves pruning trees and flower gardening and tends to Tiny Mightylittle, her 20-pound Maine Coon cat.
At High Mowing, besides music, Elise plays at least two other important roles. One, not so visible: Elise is one of our house copy editors! The other role, a bit more difficult and time consuming: she is one of two faculty members on the Standards Committee. Of this role Elise says, “High school is a time of many decisions and ethical crossroads for students. The Standards Committee is just one facet of the picture High Mowing presents to students to help them find their way.”
For the next school year, we are pleased to announce that Elise will officially be at High Mowing full-time (she will also be teaching chorus). We are grateful that she brings her great gifts and love of music to our school. And Elise is grateful to be here. She says, “Music is truly valued at High Mowing. There is no big banner that says we value the arts—it just is.”
