An associate of the Canadian Music Centre, his compositional output includes works for choirs, bands, orchestras, and art songs.
A grant from the Canada Council enabled him to pursue further studies in Paris from 1957 to 1960 with Nadia Boulanger (composition) and Jean Casadesus (piano).
The pair commissioned works by such composers as Bruce Mather, Robert Turner, Jack Behrens, and Owen Underhill.
In 1967 both men joined the music faculty of the University of Manitoba where they studied the duo piano repertoire with Alma Brock-Smith while teaching.
[4] At WLU McDonald was co-ordinator of the summer baroque and classical workshop in addition to teaching classes in piano and music theory.
In 1989 he toured Nova Scotia as a member of the Mannheim Trio with soprano Valerie Kinslow and clarinetist Sherman Friedland.