Sarah E MacDonald

SARAH MACDONALD is a Canadian-born UK-based organist, conductor, pianist, and composer, where she is Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Ely Cathedral's Girl Choristers. She has been at Selwyn since 1999, and was the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge Chapel. Sarah studied at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music Glenn Gould Professional School, and at Cambridge University, and her teachers were Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, John Tuttle, and...See more

SARAH MACDONALD is a Canadian-born UK-based organist, conductor, pianist, and composer, where she is Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Ely Cathedral's Girl Choristers. She has been at Selwyn since 1999, and was the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge Chapel. Sarah studied at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music Glenn Gould Professional School, and at Cambridge University, and her teachers were Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, John Tuttle, and David Sanger. She has toured extensively as a conductor and organist, and is in demand internationally as a director of choral and organ courses. She has made over 35 commercial recordings, and her liturgical works (over 50 published titles) are performed regularly throughout the world. She holds the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (RCO), and is a winner of the coveted Limpus prize. She is an examiner for the RCO and for Cambridge University's Faculty of Music. Sarah received the honorary ARSCM in recognition of her contribution to choral music. She is a Patron of the Society of Women Organists, President of the School Organists' Association, and an Honorary Patron of the Herbert Howells Society. In 2022 she was appointed Organist to the University of Cambridge. She is the first woman to hold this historic ceremonial role. In 2023, she was elected to serve as President of the Royal College of Organists, her term beginning in June of 2024. In her spare time, Sarah is a keen amateur photographer. See less