McDonald opens 2017 FFUMC Concert Series
She broke the glass ceiling at Southern Baptist Association by becoming the first woman president of its Music Conference. Mary McDonald, the well-known pianist and composer of more than 800 sacred songs, musicals and keyboard collections, will perform Sunday, May 21 at First Farragut United Methodist Church, 12733 Kingston Pike.
McDonald will be kicking off the “Music for a Sunday Afternoon” concert series at 2 p.m. in the sanctuary. The piano concert is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
In 2011, after serving as sacred music editor for The Lorenz Corporation in Dayton, Ohio, for more than 20 years, McDonald answered a new call. Now she takes her passion for music-making directly to churches as an independent artist. She is in constant demand in churches across the nation for composer weekends. In addition, McDonald serves as host for many of the top Choral Music Dealer conferences in the country, where ministers of music gather to hear and bring back new choral music to their congregations.
“Mary McDonald’s music appears in the catalogs of every major publisher of church music,” FFUMC member Laura Derr said, “and her career spans more than 35 years.”
McDonald is a lifelong Knoxville resident and grew up the youngest of a large family with a mother who played the piano by ear. Committed to teaching her children to read music, McDonald’s mother taught some of the older children using an old piano method book. After her siblings walked away, 5-year-old Mary would slip onto the bench and by ear would play the music she’d heard her siblings playing.
“Her extraordinary, natural gifts have carried her into the hearts of people in congregations all across the country,” Derr said.
“I want my legacy to be that I lit up every room I walked into; that people felt better after being around me than they did before we came together,” McDonald said. “The world will take care of belittling them and whittling them down to size. I prefer to be an encourager, a motivator and to bring a smile and ray of sunshine and hope to their day. That’s how I want to be remembered, both through my music and my life.”
