The Mount Vernon Fine Arts Association will be hosting Steinway piano artist Jim McDonough in a holiday concert Thursday, Dec. 19, at the Mount Vernon Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available in advance by purchasing at mvhstheatre.ludus.com.
While tickets will also still be available at the door the night of the concert, members of the association are encouraging those attending to purchase their tickets now, as the show has reserved seating.
This concert will serve as a fundraiser for the Mount Vernon Fine Arts Association. Current needs for the fine arts organizations at Mount Vernon, according to Thad Wilkins, choir director, include new robes for Treble Choir, better livestream equipment for all district performances, additional folder storage for growing choir numbers, assisting the district with new sound equipment in the Mount Vernon District auditorium at the middle school, helping pay for students to participate in addition music opportunities outside our district, supplementing all the fine arts teachers’ budgets, upgrading and replacing instruments and providing seed money
for the middle school musical to get off the ground. That musical for junior thespians is Seussical, and expected to take the stage in January 2025.
This also serves as the first inaugural concert in Mount Vernon Performing Arts Center bringing high level talent to the Mount Vernon area.
“I think we’ve talked for a while about the need to give back to the community through the space they voted to provide,” Wilkins said. “Obviously our first responsibility is to our students and families in our district, but when we have the chance to provide additional
concert opportunities to our community, I think we need to make them happen. I hope we’re able to bring professional musicians to the Performing Arts Center more often going forward.”
Wilkins said he has loved the opportunity to provide a professional performance in the space to our community and the chance to expose Mount Vernon students to another professional musician.
“Jim McDonough is a fixture in Eastern Iowa and has been performing his Christmas Show for a long time,” Wilkins said. “He’s a high-level musician that will provide a great atmosphere and family friendly entertainment during the holidays. It’s a great way to support the fine arts in our district while celebrating the holiday season.”
The concert will feature McDonough’s signature piano arrangements of holiday music and other all-time favorites, in an event suited for all generations. The concert not only marks McDonough’s first performance at the Mount Vernon Performing Arts Center, but also the first appearance by an International Steinway Artist on the venue’s own Steinway concert grand piano.
“This year’s show promises to be a warm and personal experience for all,” McDonough said. “Similar to my PBS television special, ‘Home for Christmas,’ those in attendance will feel the nostalgia of gathering around the piano, and sharing in our favorite holiday songs and memories.”
After stints as a high school band director, cruise ship entertainer and air-traffic controller, Monticello native, Jim McDonough, began selling his distinctive brand of soothing piano music in local gift shops in eastern Iowa – unknowingly launching a production company and a new career in the process. Now, more than two decades later, the International Steinway Artist continues to oversee the distribution of his extensive music catalog, while headlining concert tours as a soloist, as well as with his professional orchestra and singers.
The road to success, though, has been paved with detours. In eighth grade, an accident nearly ended his musical career.
A falling piano crushed three fingers on his right hand – and nearly crushed his dreams in the process. McDonough emerged from two hours of surgery with pins in his fingers and tiny fractures across his hand. But throughout more than a year of physical therapy,
McDonough kept playing – with a cast on his right hand – and concentrated on improving his performance with his lefthand.
“Playing the piano defined me,” McDonough says. “It was my life, and I was determined to play again.”
He devoted nearly every spare moment to working to get back the dexterity in his right hand, and the rigorous rehearsing paid off. In ninth grade, instead of a car, Jim bought a Steinway grand piano to celebrate how far he’d come.
In 2010, McDonough was honored by the legendary piano maker, Steinway & Sons, naming him to its worldwide artist roster. As a Steinway Artist, McDonough joins an exclusive international list of the most accomplished and discriminating performing artists, including classical pianist, Lang Lang; jazz star, Harry Connick Jr.; pop icon, Billy Joel; and “immortals,” Irving Berlin and Cole
Porter.
McDonough’s hour-long television special, Home for Christmas with Jim McDonough, a concert taped at his personal residence, aired on Iowa PBS during the 2020 holiday season, and on PBS stations across the country beginning in 2021.
His discography includes Requests (2002); Home for Christmas (2003); Projections: Songs from the Silver Screen (2004); An Ivory Christmas (2004); Music of the Night (2004); Simple Gifts (2005); With Love (2006); Homeward Bound (2007); Country Dreaming (2008); A Christmas to Remember (2008); Rat Pack Remembered (2009); Isn’t It Romantic (2010); Young At Heart (2011); Christmas Eve (2011); One Nation Under God (2012); Country Roads (2013); Broadway Dreams (2014); Holiday Grande (2016); ’Tis the Season (2019); and Only You (2021).