Julie McDonald - C Flute, Piccolo, Alto Flute, Bass Flute

My husband, Bob, and I attended high school together in Chicago Heights, Illinois. As a couple, we have lived in Champaign-Urbana and Southern California, but Fairfax has been our home for the past seventeen years. We have two sons, Ben and Scott. Both are in their twenties and successfully employed! I teach flute at Northern Virginia Community College’s campuses in Annandale and Alexandria. In May 2026, I graduated from George Mason University with my Doctorate of Musical Arts in Flute Performance. I also earned my Masters in Flute Performance at GMU with the help of my fabulous teacher, Julianna Nickel. My Bachelor's degree in Music Education is from Illinois State University, where I studied with Max Schoenfeld from 1989-1994. Remarkably, Max was also Debbie Gilbert’s flute teacher. My interests outside of music include reading, writing, researching, gardening, exercising, cooking, and travel. I started playing the flute when I was in the fifth grade, at age ten. The Catholic school I attended did not have a band, so the band director at the public school three blocks away would recruit students from our school. At the band demonstration, Cindy Wheeler played “Pop Goes the

Weasel” on the piccolo. I smiled, laughed, and felt immediate joy. I wanted to play the flute because I wanted to learn piccolo. Our director, Mr. Allie, only allowed you to play piccolo in eighth grade after several years of flute. He also required every member of his band to take private lessons from teachers who went to VanderCook college in Chicago. They taught lessons after school at the Junior High School. Mrs. Donna Rivitch was my first flute teacher. She was extremely patient and kind

because I did not start practicing until seventh grade. I winged it the first couple years because I was also taking piano lessons. Piano was much more difficult with two hands and two clefs at the same time. Mrs. Lydick, my teacher, was compassionately strict. She kept me from talking too much by giving me a Velamint. I feared her disappointment, so I was motivated to practice. In the bandroom a huge sign read, “RESULTS, NOT EXCUSES,” on the wall behind the podium. We saw it every time we looked up from our music. Air for Band by Frank Erickson was the

first piece I felt time stop, when the entire band was watching, listening, and focused on making music. Mr. Allie taught us rubato with Air for Band, and he always pushed and pulled the tempo in different places so we had to watch. I was hooked on music from that moment. By eighth grade, I w as practicing the flute an hour every day. I begged my parents to go to Marian Catholic High School not because it was a private Catholic school, but for their outstanding band program. Money was always tight. My parents were divorced and my Dad lost his job my sophomore

year. My Godmother Jean paid for tuition that year and the next. On a whim, My Mom decided we were moving to Boulder, Colorado. Our band director, Greg Bimm, noticed I was a mess and pulled me aside. I have no idea what he said, but Mr. Bimm called my Mom and convinced her to stay. By this time, marching band had become my life. We practiced during school ninety minutes, after school three hours, eight hours on Saturdays, and four on Sundays. All fall, we played Friday night football games then travelled to competitions. PRIDE was our motto, an acronym that stood for Personal Responsibility In Daily Effort. Mr. Bimm transcribed orchestral scores for our marching band of two hundred twenty members. Our repertoire was Stravinsky's Petrouchka, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Pie Jesu, Gloria by John Rutter, Mass and Make Our Garden Grow by Leonard Bernstein, and The Tenderland, an

opera by Aaron Copland. He also wrote the marching drill, which was also extremely difficult. Mr. Bimm called what we did art, telling a visual story, with sets constantly changing to fit the length and meaning of the musical phrases. Our band won the Bands of America Grand Nationals Championship an unprecedented three of the four years I was in high school. By senior year, I decided I wanted to become a band director. I toured Illinois State University when our band was there for the state marching band competition in October. Mr. Bimm introduced me to everyone in

the music department. ISU was his alma mater. I remember him saying, “There are good people here.” After undergrad, I taught general music, beginning band, junior high band and chorus, as well as private lessons at every level, from age eight to adults. While we raised our two sons, I kept my flute and piano studio going. I also kept taking flute lessons. First, from Kimberly McCoul Risinger, who took over Max’s position at Illinois State when he retired. Then, from Jill Felber for a couple years, driving every other week from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. When we moved to

Fairfax, I began with Judy Lapple. Then, I studied with Julianna Nickel four years before I decided to go back to school. For two years, Alice Weinreb prepared me for my Masters degree auditions. Early on in my Virginia flute journey, I attended Wildacres Flute Retreat. Here I met Debbie Gilbert, Lucy Snell, Keith Hanlon, and Laura Benning, all from the NoVA-DC-MD region. Debbie asked me to play in the Woodbridge Flute Choir, but I was in the Fairfax Wind Symphony and they rehearsed the same night. Finally, in 2015, I decided to join WFC. I love performing dedicated flute parts with equally dedicated and caring flutists. My favorite moments have been performing Silver Winds for the first time at our Christmas Concert for Fathest Corners, Balkan Dances with Emma Resmini at the NFA convention in DC, the solo jazz movement in Rutter’s Suite Antique, and By Kells Waters, every time we play it. I am blessed to be a part of WFC’s cheerful, accepting, and supportive flute community. Debbie Gilbert, our devoted artistic director, has taught me not only

about conducting, rehearsing, and choosing flute choir repertoire, but also how to lead with grace. I hope to take these lessons with me to the Arlington Flute Ensemble this year as their new director. What makes WFC unique is our outreach. High school students compete in our Concerto competition, audiences enjoy our varied repertoire, and flutists get to learn and perform new flute choir music commissioned by our group. We nurture flutists and their desire to keep playing.

Audiences see and hear our excitement for music by the high level of execution in our performances. For the next thirty years, I hope to see WFC’s audience grow through a continued creative social media presence, invitations for flutists to sit in rehearsals, and performing new repertoire that reaches all ages, genders, and ethnicites.