steve macdonald was born in ottawa in 1977. in 1996 he began a bachelor’s degree in music studies at the university of ottawa playing soprano, tenor and baritone saxes in the university’s concert band, jazz ensemble and saxophone quartet. by 1998 he was playing professionally in eastern ontario and western quebec. in 1999, he moved to toronto where he completed his bachelor’s of arts degree in jazz performance at york university under the tutelage of canadian sax great, mike murley. he has since been awarded a variety of academic awards including the marion lower scholarship for jazz composition and the douglas menzie award for outstanding instrumental jazz performance.

steve continues to work the toronto scene and travels regularly across canada, the united states, europe and asia for various club, festival and television appearances.

steve is currently recording and touring with decca/universal recording artist and juno nominee matt dusk as the band’s saxophonist and musical director. dusk’s first commercial release entitled “two shots”, has gone gold in canada and has led to tour dates around the world including shows in the middle east, hong kong, the netherlands, the united kingdom and month-long performances in major las vegas showrooms. dusk and his band also played a starring role in mark burnett’s las vegas tv reality show, “the casino” (on the FOX & CTV networks). the show was originally aired on canadian and US airwaves but has been recently rebroadcast on british and european television networks.

dusk’s second release (decca/universal label) entitled “back in town” was recorded at the historic capitol studios in los angeles, california. the album has received great recognition across canada, europe and japan where, in december 2007 the title track, "back in town", rose to number one on the japanese pop charts. this was followed by a very successful performance series in tokyo and yokohama in late december 2007.

the next record is currently in the production phases and is scheduled for release in early-mid 2009.