Jon Donald

Jon-Marc Donald is the Percussion Area Head and Director of the CrossPulse Ethnic Drum Ensemble and a member of the MAI® Board of Directors. He teaches all percussion instruments.

Jon holds the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music—Conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and has completed coursework for the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance from the University of Iowa. He is an active clinician and performer in the Kansas City Metro Area, specializing in the synthesis of electronic and acoustic music, and various forms of ethnic drumming.  Additionally, Jon is an innovator in the introduction of young students to the art of ethnic drumming

Jon has performed in Europe, America and French Polynesia and appears with classical guitarist John Svoboda as the duo Algo de Novo.

He has been a faculty member of Music/Arts Institute® ® since 1990, teaching all areas of percussion and drumming. Jon is currently the director of the CrossPulse Ethnic Drum Ensemble, and is a past conductor of the Young MAIsterSingers Boys Choir. Other teaching has included: the Metropolitan Community Colleges, the George Caleb Bingham Academy of the Arts, Truman State University, the University of Iowa, Graceland University, and numerous percussion assistantships with Eastern Jackson county high schools.

Professional performance highlights include appearances with: the Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Iowa Center for New Music, Percussion Pops 2000™, Marimba Yajalon, the Western Missouri British Brass Band, and the Iowa City Ronald McDonald House Players. Solo highlights include: the Society of Composers National Convention, the American New Arts Festival, the Pierre Boulez Festival and numerous freelance appearances in Missouri and Iowa. Jon has been involved in a number of world premieres of contemporary chamber music with the Iowa Center for New Music's Guest Composers Series' and International Composers Forums.

He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and the Percussive Arts Society, and is the owner of Darbuka Productions, an Audio/Visual recording company based in Lees Summit, Missouri.  For more information, please visit:  jondonald.net or Jon's Facebook page.