Margaret McGillivray

About the Artist

Multi-instrumentalist Dr. Margaret McGillivray has been hailed as a musical "force of nature" and dynamic educator. Originally from the wide open skies of the Canadian Prairies, Margaret spent most of her formative years in Newmarket, Ontario. She completed her degree in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music before finishing high school.  Going on to McGill University in Montreal for further study, this time in Horn Performance, she followed up with a Master’s in Horn Performance and Literature from Northwestern University.  Her principal teachers have included some of the finest horn players in the world: John Zirbel, Gail Williams, Marty Hackleman, David Krehbiel, Bill Barnewitz and Daniel Katzen.   ​ Dr. McGillivray has played and taught in Canada, England, Germany, France, Sweden, Japan and the US. She has given several premieres, including the US premieres of Keith Bissell's Sonata for Horn and the Southwest premieres of Jacques Hetu's Cor-Jupitre and Elizabeth Raum's Romance. Alongside championing the work of underrepresented composers, she is also passionate about bringing the works of Canadian composers to a wider international audience. Margaret holds the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona where her research into the connection between singing and horn playing culminated in the capstone project, "The Singing Horn Player" as well as three new transcriptions of vocal arias for horn. She has developed workshops on this subject and a vocal approach informs her teaching methods with beginners and advanced musicians alike. ​ An active performer, Dr. McGillivray has played with many ensembles in the Southwest, including the Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Arizona Opera Orchestra, New Mexico Philharmonic and the Santa Fe Symphony.  Since arriving in the Mid-Atlantic, Margaret has appeared with such orchestras as the National and Baltimore Symphonies, New Orchestra of Washington, Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and the Lancaster and  Richmond Symphonies. She is also on faculty at Towson University and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. When not writing, teaching, practicing for some musical shenanigans or running children to swim practice, she spends time hiking, cooking and laughing with her husband, and loving on one hairy english setter named Lefse.