James MacDonald was born in 1992 in Bangor, Maine. He completed his Bachelor’s of Music in Composition at Capital University in 2014 where he was a student of Tony Zilincik, Dr. Dina Lentsner, Stan Smith, Dr. Rocky Reuter, and Dr. Vera Stanojevic. During his undergraduate studies, he composed for various chamber ensembles, electronic music, and jazz ensembles. He also performed in jazz ensembles, men’s choir, the improvisatory Ensemble NOW, and the electronic music ensemble MIDI Band. MacDonald completed his Master of Music degree at The Ohio State University in May 2016. During his time as a master’s student at Ohio State, he explored various topics in electronic music, such as gestural control of computer music parameters using technologies such as Arduino and the Xbox Kinect. He is now pursuing his DMA at Ohio State, where he is currently a student of Dr. Thomas Wells. His music has been performed on various recitals and festivals, such as the NOW Music Festival, Capital University Honors recital, Ohio State Composer’s Seminar recitals, Ohio State Symphony Orchestra Concerto Concert, Ohio State Spring Dance Concert, the Society of Composers National Student Conference, the Salon3 Concrete Timbre Inc. concert series, and his own recitals. He was the Ohio State Symphony Orchestra Composer-in-Residence for the 2015-2016 year, during which he composed an original work that was premiered by the orchestra. He also took part in a collaborative project with choreographer Anna Vomacka to create a work that utilized gesture-following technologies to control electronic music parameters in real time entitled Breathe With Me.