Sara McDonald

Sara McDonald
Brooklyn, NY
Grant amount: $15,000

About the Artist

The NYChillharmonic is a female-fronted, Brooklyn-based, 18-piece, Progressive-Jazz Orchestra. The music fuses multiple genres including jazz, pop, and rock, which ultimately creates an ensemble sound that acknowledges the tradition of jazz as much as it sonically embraces experimental textures, arrangements, and harmonies.

The group has performed at world renowned festivals such as The Montreal Jazz Festival, Perth International Jazz Festival, So What's Next Festival, Buenos Aires International Jazz Festival, Keio University Jazz Fest (Tokyo), Moers Festival, Take The A Train Festival, Mazzstock Music Festival, The International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Northside Festival, CU Jazz Festival, Nublu Jazz Festival, and The East Village Music Festival.

They have had notable performances at ASCAP’s ‘Songwriters: The Next Generation’ Showcase at The John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington D.C., The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, City Winery NYC, National Sawdust, (le) Poisson Rouge, and The Iridium in NYC.

The music of The NYChillharmonic has been performed across 5 continents, in 10 different countries with over 400 musicians.

The band frequently tours as a rhythm section and contracts local horn and string players from the cities in which they are performing in order to fill the remaining ensemble chairs. The rhythm section is composed of Sara McDonald, Adam Neely, Shubh Saran, Josh Bailey, and Eitan Kenner.

Recent tour history includes a headlining performance at So What's Next Festival in Eindhoven, The Netherlands as well as a Midwest tour that brought the band to four venues - The 5 Spot in Nashville TN, Rose Bowl Tavern in Champaign IL, The Bur Oak in Madison WI, and Ice House in Minneapolis, MN. Three out of the four shows on this last tour were sold out in 130-200 capacity venues. Tickets were sold at $15 in advance, and $20 dollars at the door. All venues were hard ticket venues with door deals.

The NYChillharmonic compositions have twice been awarded ASCAP’s coveted ‘Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award’ and once-awarded the ASCAP ‘Phoebe Jacobs Prize.' The group was also included in Brooklyn Magazines annual ""30 under 30"" list, highlighting successful musicians, artists, and entrepreneurs in NYC.