WAUKESHA – At its Honors & Degree ceremony Wednesday evening, May 17, the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha will recognize its Alumna of the Year, Ellen McDonald. The ceremony will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on campus, 1500 N. University Dr., Waukesha, with a reception to follow.
The current owner of the Hartland Music Center and Waukesha County Conservatory of Music, the music-loving McDonald just wanted to have fun when she came to UW-Waukesha in 1978. Already enrolled at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, she was lured to campus by her cousin, who brought her to a noon-hour Madrigal production. “This is great,” she felt. “I was hooked.”
Ellen (then Bartel), who lived on a farm in Oconomowoc, had been introduced to music performance as a child by her dad, doing radio at age 6, playing at church by age 13, and teaching piano by 16.
She began taking classes at UW-Waukesha, closer to her home, and found herself in the midst of many like-minded students who became good friends. Among them was the man she would marry, Larry McDonald, who had gone from math major through a labyrinth of professional aspirations to musician and now is an award-winning composer.
“It was a good time. I met some great people. We were close-knit,” she describes that period. That warm feeling and the quality of the education still summon fond memories. “There were great teachers. Don Stimpert (Music) is totally responsible for where I am today. He introduced me to Larry and is still an important part of our lives.”
“I think I took just about every course Betty Murnan-Smith (English) and Andrea Matthias (Music) taught,” she remembers. In almost the same breath, she mentions Phil Zweifel (English) and David Hundhausen (Communications & Theater Arts). Of course, she participated in the Madrigals, singing and playing harpsichord.
In 1980 she received the Associate of Arts degree along with music departmental honors. The transition to Carroll College, where she would pursue a degree in organ performance, she called “easy.” While she still has an eye on that degree, the next period of her life took a serious turn to the professional.
Larry purchased the Music Center in Hartland, and in January 1981, Ellen and he married. She took over the store management, and he pursued graduate degrees in music. But they celebrated their first anniversary by touring England with Don Stimpert and his UW-Waukesha Madrigal singers.
Soon she was overseeing a bevy of music teachers and students at the blossoming conservatory. She bought Larry’s share of the business in 1990, and now coordinates some 55 music teachers and 1200 students per week, and she loves it. The business, which offers the largest number of private music instructors in Wisconsin, continues to grow. Ellen projects 2000 students by end of the year. Students and teachers – all degreed musicians – come from about a hundred-mile radius to the Waukesha Conservatory, including instructors from Illinois. Students range in age from babies to senior citizens.
Employing her own brother, Jim, as contractor, Ellen is building a new facility and moving the business out of downtown Hartland to a site on Highway 83 about 1½ miles north of I-94. She has been working toward this goal for the past five years. The beautifully designed structure will provide a stage for live performance, an espresso shop, as well as teaching rooms and store and guitar center. She anticipates June occupancy with a formal opening in August. The recording studio portion of the business will remain on Capitol Drive in the heart of Hartland.
In addition to her managerial commitments, Ellen continues to teach, performs solos, and appears with the pop group Me and the Boys.
Ellen and Larry McDonald now live near the parents of both of them in Nashotah, but they travel the world as his compositions receive wider acclaim. At home, Ellen says, “I’m a people coordinator,” and that makes sweet music for her.
