Wellesley High School choir director nominated for Music Educator of the Year Grammy Award
WELLESLEY -- For the past 19 years, the Wellesley High School chorus department has been a part of Dr. Kevin McDonald's life. Now, Kevin is one of 25 semifinalists to be nominated for the 2023 Grammy Award for Music Educator of the Year.
"The kids, the music, the space, the community, all of those reasons, it's a special place to be," McDonald said.
The sounds of holiday tunes filled the high ceilings of the WHS chorus room while Kevin instructed a specialty group early Tuesday morning.
When he first started, there were only two concerts in a school year. Some of their specialty groups, like the one WBZ-TV had the opportunity to listen to, didn't even exist yet.
These days McDonald oversees four a Capella groups, two audition-only ensembles, and multiple weekly chorus classes.
"There's always been a level of excellence. To sustain the level of excellence he's had over the years has also been a testimony to his teaching and the work that he's done," said Michael LaCava, the Wellesley Public Schools performing arts department director.
"I think my jaw hit the floor, to be honest with you," McDonald said when asked what his reaction was upon finding out about the nomination.
He said the real honor was being nominated by a parent, reflecting on realizing that he's impacted someone's life.
McDonald was WBZ-TV's Katrina Kincade's chorus teacher when she went to Wellesley High School -- and he impacted her life.
"It's a special thing but it's a real credit to our students because a teacher can teach but the students have to learn and it's the students that make the classroom special," Kevin said.
He's overwhelmed, surprised, and overall humbled at the nomination. But he also said he's excited to know that the Grammy's care about bringing music education to the forefront. He leads with a special philosophy that he learned from his high school choral teacher back in Ludlow, Massachusetts.
"It is rare in today's day in age that people come together for the sole purpose of making something beautiful," McDonald said.
And make something beautiful they do. Through the years he's developed his own philosophy that he takes into teaching every day.
"Every person has a voice and in that voice is a gift and it is our responsibility to use that gift to somehow positively affect the world around us and we so do, by music."
The finalists will be announced in December.
