Ms. Prudence McDaniel, for the last 18 years, is and has been the cellist of the highly acclaimed, award winning Marian Anderson String Quartet (MASQ) which is currently celebrating its 31st year of performing main stage concerts and conducting educational outreach throughout the U.S. She was on the faculty of Texas A&M with the quartet as Ensemble-in-Residence from 2003-2009. She has been a lecturer in the Blinn College Fine Arts Department since 2009 teaching Music Appreciation.
Ms. McDaniel served as co-founder, co-artistic director and treasurer of the Marian Anderson String Quartet Community Music School, a 501©3 non-profit organization based in Bryan, TX. Her current cello studio consists of approximately 10 private students ranging in age from 10 to 70 years.
Prior to joining MASQ, Ms. McDaniel taught privately and performed with several orchestra including: New York Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Columbus Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, and piano trio Sisters’ Grace which was based in New York, NY performing classical, jazz, and gospel genres.
Ms. McDaniel’s philosophy of learning and teaching is that “we are in it together”. “The joy and challenge, as a teacher, comes from taking the information contained in the course and helping each student (in the diverse ways each one learns) find the connections that bring them understanding and greater appreciation for something they enjoy every day”.
She does caution students not to assume that the course will be “a breeze”. Western European Art music is like a language with its own alphabet, grammar, vocabulary and history. As an overview course, these are only touched on lightly, however, they must be learned if the student is to be successful in the course. And, she asks that students come with open ears and minds. “If you think you ‘know how to listen’ you’ll be surprised at how much more you know at the end of the course”!
Ms. McDaniel holds degrees in music performance from Drake University (Bachelor of Music), Manhattan School of Music (Master of Music), and Duquesne University (Artist Diploma). She is a member of Mu Phi Epsilon, Pi Kappa Lambda, and Phi Kappa Phi.
She enjoys the company of a wonderful Blue Heeler/Belgian Shepard mix dog (Genee), and pursues archery (traditional recurve) and scuba diving as often as possible. She enjoys reading sci-fi, the neuroscience of music, comparative texts on religion, history, finance… anything that catches her interest. Her musical tastes include: classical, jazz, gospel, R&B, classic rock, heavy metal, celtic, world music, rap, funk, and bagpipes.
See Prudence perform at Unexpected Favorites, now available to enjoy free on demand!