6/25/01
AU BAND MEMBER TO COMPETE IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
AUBURN -- Mark McDonald of Albertville, who plays tuba in the Auburn University Marching Band, has been selected as one of six finalists in an international euphonium competition scheduled Aug. 4-12 in Lahti, Finland.
The sophomore chemical engineering major/music minor was selected based on tapes submitted to the International Tuba and Euphonium Association. McDonald will compete in the finals of the Arnold Jacobs Mock Orchestral Auditions, named for the 44-year principal tubist of the Chicago Symphony orchestra, at the ITEA conference.
"When I was three years old, I saw an episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and Mr. Rogers visited the Empire Brass," McDonald said. "The first person he talked to was their tubist, Sam Pilafian, and when I got a glimpse of his personality, his instrument and the sound it makes, I was hooked. I joined the band in the seventh grade and chose the tuba as my instrument."
When McDonald got to Auburn, he worked under Richard Good, who heads up low brass for AU bands. McDonald soon learned that Good had studied with Pilafian, the man who had been instrumental in his attraction to the tuba.
"Mark is an extremely talented young man," Good said. "What's amazing is the amount of time he's able to put into his musical work and still be a dean's list student in a demanding curriculum like chemical engineering. Somehow, Mark pulls it off.
"It is certainly an honor for Mark personally and for Auburn's band program for him to be selected to compete in this international competition. I'm sure he'll represent us well."
In addition to the tuba and the euphonium, McDonald also plays the trombone and is learning the piano. His musical talents, he says, were encouraged and nurtured by his family -- including his parents, George and Amy, who are both Auburn alumni.
"My mother was constantly singing to me when I was young," McDonald said. "She plays the piano, too. My father had limited musical training, but he loves music in general, particularly songs of historical significance.
"I also found a wonderful sense of strength and encouragement in my great aunt and uncle, Euclid and Nell Rains," McDonald added. Uncle Euclid played low brass in the Jacksonville State University band and Aunt Nell was an Auburn University graduate.
McDonald credits his teachers of the past several years with getting him to the point where he's qualified for an international musical competition. In addition to Good, he has studied with Dale Bloodworth, the band director at Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City, and with Michael Dunn at the University of Alabama.
His band experience at Auburn, he says, has also played a major role.
"I love the band program here," he says. "The marching band allowed me to make a very smooth transition when I was a freshman. The band family is possibly the most closely knit of all organizations on campus based on long hours spent together working toward a goal that we all share. In fact, the whole music department is that way."
For McDonald, the trip to Finland will be his first outside the United States.
"That's going to make it a very incredible experience for me," he said.
And the whole AU music department will be pulling for McDonald in the Finland competition.
"We hope he'll do well," Good said. "And I'm sure he won't let us down."
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Anyone interested in contributing to a fund set to help send McDonald to Finland should call McDonald at 256/891-3607 or write him at 1509 Jason Street, Albertville, Ala., 35950.
AU-tuba
CONTACT: McDonald, 256/891-3607; and Good, 334/844-3179.