About Grace
Empowering individuals through music
Grace MacDonald (she/her), MMT, MTA, MT-BC, B.Mus (Honours) is a Board Certified Music Therapist, Performer, and Music Teacher from St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Grace strives to create a warm, welcoming, and kind environment for her students and clients that encourages them to be their authentic selves. She believes that music is for everyone and strives to create tailored musical experiences and sessions that align with each student and client’s individual needs.
Grace has a Master of Music Therapy from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and has a Bachelor of Music with Honours in Voice from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. Grace has been teaching music privately for the past 4 years, and currently teaches at Shine Music. She primarily teaches private voice, beginner piano and guitar, and ukulele. She also teaches toddler group classes for children ages 2-5 years and musical theatre classes for students of all ages and abilities.
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Grace studied voice with Ronalda Hutton MacDonald for over 10 years. At MUN School of Music, she was taught classical voice by Dr. Jane Leibel for 4 years, and also worked with Shelley Neville and Dr. Caroline Schiller. Grace has won many local, provincial and national awards for her singing. She competed in the Kiwanis Music Festival for over a decade. She was a finalist for the Jr. Vocal Rose Bowl in 2017, and in 2021, Grace placed 2nd Place in FCMF National Music Festival in the Musical Theatre Category.
Grace has been performing in community musical theatre and operatic productions over the past 20 years, and has had many lead and chorus roles. Some of her favourite role credits include Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (Laurier Musical Theatre), Miss Darbus in High School Musical (Laurier Musical Theatre), Clara in Scrooge (Peter MacDonald Productions), Crystal in Santa’s Place (Peter MacDonald Productions), and Grace/Dot in Honk! (Best Kind Productions).
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Music Therapy Experience
​In her music therapy work, Grace completed a music therapy internship in the Summer of 2023 at the Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Centre. At the Janeway, Grace worked around the hospital in Inpatient and Outpatient Mental Health and Psychiatry, Medicine and Surgery, Pediatric Intensive Care, Child Development (children and youth with physical, developmental and learning challenges, such as ASD, ADHD, OCD, etc), and Child Rehabilitation (individuals under the age of 18 with complex conditions that create a significant level of physical impairment). In the Fall of 2023 and the Winter of 2024, Grace was a music therapy intern at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario, for Child, Adolescent, and Adult Inpatient Mental Health. She most recently concluded her final internship in Long-Term Care at Trinity Village in Kitchener, Ontario, in which she worked with residents with various forms of Dementia. She has also facilitated Palliative Care (End-of-Life) Sessions.
Grace is a now board certified music therapist (MTA, MT-BC), ​​and most recently, became a registered therapist (N.D.) with the Academy of Naturopaths and Naturotherapists of Canada.
Therapeutic Approaches
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Humanistic & Person Centred
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​Individualized care in which focused is place on the individual's unique needs and circumstances. Client strengths and potentials are highlighted rather than their weaknesses.
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Resource Oriented
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Each client has their own set of strengths that have got them to where they are today. In resource-oriented music therapy, we highlight and encourage those strengths and determine how we can use them to navigate the world happily and safely.​
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Family Centred
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​Queer Theory Informed & Anti-Oppressive Practice
Scope of Practice and Specialities
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Child Development and Rehabilitation
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In-Patient Bedside Music Therapy
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Mental Health (All Ages)
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Long Term Care
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Gender and Sexuality Affirming Care
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Queer Music Therapy