Earl MacDonald lives jazz as a performer, composer and educator. Director of jazz studies at the University of Connecticut, the Winnipeg native earned degrees in jazz performance from McGill University and Rutgers, where he apprenticed with Kenny Barron. Earl is an active clinician, guest conductor and teacher at summer camps, in addition to his position at UCONN. From 1998 to 2000, MacDonald was the musical director, pianist, and arranger for the Maynard Ferguson Big Bop Nouveau Band. In 2002, MacDonald won the Sammy Nestico Award, for outstanding big band arranging. Earl was selected as a finalist for the 2007 Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Award during his affiliation with the BMI Jazz Composers' Workshop in New York. Twice he appeared as a finalist for the ArtEZ Composition Contest in the Netherlands. MacDonald's last CD, Re:Visions - works for jazz orchestra received a 2011 JUNO Award nomination. From this album, Earl's composition, "Bad Dream" won the jazz song category of the Tenth Annual Independent Music Awards. His new recording, Mirror of the Mind embodies his ongoing search for new ways to express himself musically, while challenging the defining boundaries of jazz.