ERIC MCDONALD was born in Boston Massachusetts on July 11th, 1987, and has lived there since. Despite being raised in a heavy musical environment, he shied away from it for many years. But in his early teens, Eric was working on a student newspaper with some friends, and during one meeting, they realized that the only way to be cool was to start a band (a band that went on to be WBCN contest winners and play big rock clubs such as Bill’s Bar and The Palladium). So Eric picked up the guitar and started singing. He began going out to open mikes and meeting many local, prolific songwriters, helping him develop a passion for acoustic music. When he was 14, he joined the Family Folk Chorale, a large intergenerational folk chorus that puts on themed concerts. The teens of the group often made up the band, and when the bluegrass session rolled around, the only instrument that was missing was the mandolin. Eric stepped into that role, and found his stride almost immediately. After just one month, the FFC put on their bluegrass show with Eric in a featured mandolin spot. When he was 17, Eric helped found the contemporary bluegrass band Jaded Mandolin, who played all over the rich Boston music scene, selling out shows at venues such as the legendary Club Passim and drawing heavy praise from folk writers such as Daniel Gewertz (Boston Herald) and Scott Alarik (Boston Globe).  The globe also gave special attention to Eric’s duo with his sister Justine, called Talaria. In his spare time, Eric began traveling around New England to back singer/songwriters on the mandolin (Jess Yoakum, Patty Keough, Thea Hopkins and others). In 2006, Eric began playing extensively with the cello/fiddle duo Ari & Mia Friedman, and continues to do so.

In the past few years, Eric has developed a passion for the music of contra dances, and can be seen on stage these days all over the northeast. He has been seen on stage with his own band, Matching Orange, as well as the band Perpetual eMotion (John Cote on guitar and Ed Howe on fiddle), Lissa Schnecknburger, the band Nor’Easter (Jullie Vallimont on piano and Cedar Stanistreet on fiddle). Eric has attended Pinewoods Dance Camp and has taught at Maine Fiddle Camp. At these camps, and in other social situations, he has met and drawn inspiration from many contra dance musicians, including Keith Murphy, Jeremiah McLane, Glen Loper, Ethan Hazzard-Watkins, Peter Barnes, Lissa Schnecknburger, Dave Langford, Owen Marshall, Jessie Gagne-Hall and others.

These days, Eric is studying mandolin at Berklee College of Music, under the tutelage of world renowned musician John McGann. His schedule is rapidly filling up with all sorts of musical activities. He recently joined The Dave Rowe Trio, a band based out of Maine, and is already touring the country with them. Matching Orange is beginning to draw attention from outside the dance community, and can be seen performing at concert venues such as Club Passim and The Boston Celtic Music Festival. Eric can also be seen at many events related to BCMFest. He was part of the “Bard Squad” at this year’s ICONs Festival.

Every Sunday night, Eric plays at The Burren in Somerville with Sean Staples, Eric Royer, Dan Kellar, Tim Gearan and Scott Corneille. In December, Eric will join Boston singer/songwriter Alastair Moock on stage as part of his project “Pastures of Plenty”. So far the show includes Eric, Moock, Royer, Jennifer Kimball and Paul Kochanski.

Eric can be seen around town playing with the pop/rock band The Wild Sea at venues such as Toad, The Lizard Lounge and Bill’s Bar. The band includes Ruth Peterson, Todd Russell, Frank Marrotta Jr., Matt Russell, Matt Tehaney and Phil Aiken.