Orla McDonagh

Director, Piano Program
Instructor in Music Theory

department: Music
office: 012 Evans Center
campus mail: MSC 18
phone: 503-768-7459
fax: 503-768-7475
e-mail: orla@lclark.edu

Pianist, Orla McDonagh, joined the faculty of Lewis & Clark College in August 2001 as Director of the Piano Program. Originally from Dublin, Ireland, McDonagh came to the U.S. to pursue piano studies at The Juilliard School in New York and Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, before moving to Portland. With appearances in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, McDonagh is an active soloist, chamber musician and contemporary music practitioner and has a cello/piano duo with her sister, Irish cellist Ailbhe McDonagh. On the Lewis & Clark campus, McDonagh has given numerous performances, including solo appearances with the Wind Symphony, College Orchestra, and Percussion Ensemble, in addition to several faculty recitals. She has performed with Portland contemporary groups “Third Angle” and ”fEARnoMUSIC” and is a current member of the Lewis & Clark College New Music Ensemble “Friends of Rain”.

McDonagh has performed live spots for Irish national radio and television stations (RTE) and for KBPS here in Portland. In the late 1990’s she was the subject of a documentary on the necessity for young Irish musicians to leave their country to study music abroad. Her most recent recording project involved recording the previously unrecorded version of Casteredes “Concertino” with Indiana University trombone and trumpet professors, Dee Stewart and John Rommel. Sample clips are available at http://www.stewartsounds. com/recordings.html

At Lewis & Clark College, McDonagh teaches piano lessons and performance classes in addition to courses in Music Theory, Aural Skills, Piano Literature and Piano Pedagogy. She is a frequent adjudicator in the Northwest, judging regularly on the local, state and regional levels. In addition to her teaching and adjudication activity, McDonagh occasionally gives pre-concert lectures for the Oregon Symphony. McDonagh has visited Carlisle College, PA and the University of Nevada, Reno as a guest artist to give master classes, performances and lectures. In the 2007-2008 academic year she will visit both Midwestern State University, TX and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. This summer she will spend three weeks in Bloomington, IN as a faculty member for the Indiana University Piano Program, where she has taught annually since 1999.