Our Conductor: Nell Macdonald

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 Nell Macdonald is passionate about choral singing, and is delighted to lead the Old Mill Singers since their 50th season. Since 2015, she has directed the Scarborough Singers, a women’s chorus that performs locally. She is also the artistic director of the a cappella ensemble Sing We Enchanted which she founded in 1994. For the past several seasons, she has directed the Kendal Chorale at the Kendal-on-Hudson senior residence. For the past fifteen years, she has directed children’s choirs at the Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns and previously was the youth and children’s choir director for five choirs (K-12) at the Reformed Church of Bronxville. In addition, she was also an Associate Conductor with the Children’s Aid Society Choral program for three years, and was Assistant Minister of Music at the Memorial Community Church in West Harrison.    

Nell has appeared in solo cabaret shows and recitals in the New York area and in Europe. Favorite off-Broadway productions include an original production of Pride and Prejudice (Mrs. Bennett), Pirates of Penzance (Ruth), Sound of Music (Mother Abbess), and Evita (Evita’s Mother). Nell has sung oratorio roles with the TreasureHouse Chorale and Orchestra, and operatic roles with the Hudson Lyric Opera Company. She has also appeared as a soloist with the Hudson River Quartet, the Northern Westchester Symphony, Rockland Symphony Orchestra and other NY-based orchestras.

Nell has been teaching voice for over twenty years, producing annual cabaret shows, open mic shows and Broadway reviews. Her private students have been chosen in national ACDA competitions, All-Nationals (NYSSMA), as well as prestigious vocal arts summer programs, musical theatre college programs, and traditional conservatory arts programs. Former students have gone on to become musical theater singers and directors, singer/songwriters, touring band musicians, and opera singers.
Nell studied piano with Robert Levin in the prep division at the Manhattan School of Music, with Seymour Fink in the piano department at Binghamton University, and she received a BFA in vocal performance, magna cum laude at the Purchase Conservatory at S.U.N.Y Purchase. She lives in Ossining with her daughter Elizabeth and her husband Dave who is a professor of music at Manhattan School of Music.