Susann McDonald

Susann Hackett McDonald to George McDonald and his wife Catherine née Hackett. In 1955 she was the first American to win the Premier Prix de Harpe. Not long thereafter, she placed second in the first International Harp Competition in Israel; in 1970, she returned to the competition as a judge. Around this time she also had an audience with Juliana of the Netherlands following a recital at the Concertgebouw. Her students include Nancy Allen,Sarah Bullen,Cristina Braga, Maria Casale, , Şirin Pancaroğlu, Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean, María Luisa Rayan-Forero, Natalie Salzman, Kristie Smith, Jessica Suchy-Pilalis, and Naoko Yoshino. Her students achieved principal positions at orchestras including the New York Philharmonic,Chicago Symphony,Berlin Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National de France. She held annual master classes at her summer home in Switzerland. She founded a publishing house specialised on arrangements for harp and teaching methods, Music Works-Harp Editions, together harpist Linda Wood Rollo. Much of her collection of sheet music was destroyed or damaged in the fire, but partly restored for the archives of the Jacobs School of Music.

Recordings McDonald recorded LPs of harp sonatas of Jan Ladislav Dussek and Antonio Rosetti for Orion Records in the early 1970s, She recorded music for flute and harp with Louise DiTullio in 1976, The two players recorded a second album in 1978. She recorded traditional French harp literature, and music by Rosetti and Louis Spohr in a series for Klavier Records. She also recorded single issues including organ music with Diane Bish for the Allen Organ Company, music by Miklós Rózsa with oboist Allan Vogel for the Bay Cities label, and recital music for Boite a Musique.