BiographyMulti-instrumentalist Dr. Margaret McGillivray has been hailed as a musical "force of nature" and dynamic educator. Originally, from the wide open skies of the Canadian Prairies, Margaret spent most of her formative years in Newmarket, Ontario. She completed her degree in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music before finishing high school. She went on to McGill University in Montreal for further study, this time in Horn Performance and followed up with a Master’s in Horn Performance and Literature from Northwestern University. Her principal teachers have included some of the finest horn players in the world, such as John Zirbel, Gail Williams, Marty Hackleman, David Krehbiel, Bill Barnewitz and Daniel Katzen.
Dr. McGillivray has played and taught in Canada, England, Germany, France, Sweden, Japan and the US. She has given several premieres, including the US premieres of Keith Bissell's Sonata for Horn and the Southwest premieres of Jacques Hetu's Cor-Jupitre and Elizabeth Raum's Romance. Alongside championing the work of women composers, she also enjoys bringing the works of Canadian composers to a wider international audience. |
Margaret holds the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona where her research into the connection between singing and horn playing culminated in the capstone project, "The Singing Horn Player" as well as three new transcriptions of vocal arias for horn. She has developed workshops on this subject and a vocal approach informs her teaching methods with beginners and advanced musicians alike. An active performer, Dr. McGillivray has played with many ensembles in the Southwest, including the Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Arizona Opera Orchestra, New Mexico Philharmonic and the Santa Fe Symphony. Since arriving in the Mid-Atlantic, Margaret has appeared with such orchestras as the National Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the New Orchestra of Washington, the Maryland Symphony, Concert Artists of Baltimore, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Lancaster Symphony and the Richmond Symphony. She is also on faculty at Towson University. When not writing her upcoming book or practicing for some musical shenanigans and caring for three small children, she spends time hiking, cooking and laughing with her husband, and loving on one hairy english setter. |
Take a look at Margaret's Curriculum Vitae:
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For Margaret's performance resume:
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