Curtis Stuart Dalton Macdonald (born Febuary 20, 1962) is a new age, jazz and contemporary instrumental keyboardist, composer, arranger and producer.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Curtis Macdonald played a major role in turning contemporary instrumental and new age more mainstream. Beginning by exploring the Drum & Bass genre with the compositions Mulholland and Blue Diamond under the moniker spackle, Curtis began creating electronica influenced arrangements with the acoustic piano as the main melody and solo voice.
When he was signed by the independent music label Eversound in 2002 as Curtis Macdonald, his signature style of radio friendly smooth new age, with it’s pulsing grooves, transparent electronica, wordless vocals, memorable melodies and smooth jazz influenced improvise piano solos solidified into a sound appreciated all over the world. For his second Eversound album release, Everlasting, Curtis Macdonald received Grammy consideration for Best New Age Record as well as placing in the New Age Reporter Top 100 Recordings of 2007. His song Hope and Faith was a top 10 hit on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Spa 73 for a straight 20 weeks.
Macdonald began in 1986 after graduating with a BFA in composition from California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, recording The Highland Project with composer/engineer Steven T. Hallmark for ITI records. Four years later, he began a long career as a composer for various music libraries, allowing his talents of emulating practically every style of music to be used. Placements in film, TV, radio and interactive media continue to this day. In 1997 he created his own label CMMP records which he has numerous releases available on iTunes and Amazon and between 1999 and 2001 was keyboardist for Nouveau Flamenco artist Benise.
Growing up in Southern California, Macdonald became a self taught musician beginning at the age of six. Becoming obsessed with music, he knew he wanted to become a composer by the time he was 12. With the encouragement from his family, William Julian Macdonald, his father who was a pioneer in advertising, Penny Lee Roberts Macdonald, his mother who is an accomplished fine artist, and being exposed to the entertainment industry by proxy due to his mother’s father was pioneering newscaster Clete Roberts. Curtis Macdonald became fortunate to have the ways and means to become the artist he is today.
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