Awards

2025 Distinguished Service Award | Prix pour service émérite:
Catherine MacDonald

As a musician, Catherine is reliably professional, collaborative and enthusiastic, whether in a
professional or volunteer project. Over her entire career in the Fredericton area, since she and
her family settled here in 1994, her musical contributions have included accompanying at music
festivals, theatre rehearsals, performances, orchestras, bands, choirs, soloists, and church
worship teams. Catherine’s contribution often goes above and beyond her assigned role,
extending to learning new instruments, preparing scores, taking additional rehearsals, and
otherwise giving of her musical expertise. She combines an appreciation of quality with a
positive and ‘can-do’ attitude. Her care for and support of performers, especially young ones, is
evident and appreciated by those with whom she has worked.
As an pianist, she has accompanied numerous students from several private vocal and
instrumental studios over the last 30 years. As well, she has accompanied several school
choirs for concerts and at the Fredericton Music Festival. One of her greatest loves has been
accompanying and singing in the Fredericton Choral Society for years, often giving much more
than is expected. In more recent years, she has added playing percussion or synthesized
sounds to Symphony performances. She has always been the type of person who will go out of
her way to accommodate you when arranging rehearsal times.
As a member of the Board of the New Brunswick Choral Federation from 2007 to 2022 and
Treasurer for 10 years (2013 to 2023), Catherine consistently gave selflessly of her expertise
and experience, going above and beyond the requirements of her position. This kind of
experience and expertise is difficult for many organizations to gain access to, but it can be
crucial to the ongoing success of an organization. Even after leaving the Board, Catherine was
eager to embrace a new role as volunteer librarian of the Carolyn Nielsen Library of musical
scores. In this capacity, she oversaw the recent move of the library to temporary new premises
and continues the work of reorganizing the library holdings on a weekly basis. She also
mentored the summer student hired by the NBCF to help with this task.
In her other volunteer contributions to Fredericton's cultural life, Catherine combines eagerness
with a practical and problem-solving spirit. She is dependably one of the people doing the
countless small tasks that make projects or performances successful. Whether ticket taking,
program printing, furniture moving, poster-ing, committee planning, money counting, minute
taking, or much more, Catherine is always involved in a project. As a musician and otherwise,
she is always willing to assist in these sometimes small, but important, ways.
As a volunteer and staunch supporter, Catherine has demonstrated an enduring commitment to
the music community at large and particularly to the New Brunswick Choral Federation.