Susann McDonald 1996 oral history

Susann McDonald, distinguished professor emeritus of harp at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, died on May 29, 2025 at the age of 90. Susann McDonald was born on May 26, 1935, in Rock Island, Illinois, to George McDonald and Catherine (Hackett) McDonald. She was a harp prodigy and while still in her teens, left her hometown of Rock Island, Illinois, to study in Paris with renowned harpist and teacher Henriette Renié. In 1955, at the age of 20, she became the first American to receive the Premier Prix de Harpe from the Paris Conservatory. One year later she performed for an audience of 60,000 at the Chicagoland Music Festival at Soldier Field. After leaving Paris, she was under the concert management of Columbia Artists and was known as one of the world's greatest performers and teachers for the harp. She was recognized as a world- renowned pedagogue.

Following a robust concertizing career and teaching positions at the Juilliard School, the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona, Susann joined the Indians University Jacobs School of Music faculty in 1981. Her teaching career spanned 35 years at Indiana University.

Ms. McDonald served as the artistic director of the World Harp Congress from its inception in 1983 until 2011. McDonald promoted worldwide friendships and lived to see her students and fellow harpists succeed. In 1989, she founded the USA International Harp Competition in Bloomington, Indiana. The competition is among the largest and most esteemed solo harp performance competitions in the world.

This oral history was recorded in 1996 by Duane Busick, a documentary filmmaker in Bloomington and the father of one of Susann's students.