About Michael McDonald:

Since before birth --seriously, ask his mother-- Michael has been completely taken with sound.  It is said that we are all born with a gift.  We recognize our gift when what we do does not feel like work at all.  We light up when we are practicing our gift, and it is the thing we do with natural and caring passion.  This is exactly how Michael became a studio and sound engineer.

A native Oregonian, Michael began playing keyboard at age six.  By the ripe old age of 15 he was traveling with bands, sometimes as the headliner and sometimes opening for bands such as Buffalo Springfield and Paul Revere and the Raiders.  The biggest feather in his young cap was playing solo piano opening for Eric Burden and War.  This young exposure to live performance and fascination of using synthesizers and multiple keyboards fueled a life-long passion for creating music and giving it the perfect space to nurture and grow.  After playing keyboards and programming synthesizers on numerous albums, his fascination grew to concert sound reinforcement, culminating in a partnership in a Pacific Northwest sound company.  He was like a kid in a candy store, where he was primary stage engineer for artists including George Benson, Chuck Mangione, McCoy Tyner, Gill Scott-Heron, Keith Jerrett, Little Feat, The Commodores, Steve Martin and Lilly Tomlin.

Syntharts Project Studio was born in 1981.  Michael continued to create and record his own music while building his business.  He composed for regional radio and television advertising and national spots for Converse, the NBA, and Billy Graham.  Syntharts has been the birthplace for projects that have won national Silver Microphone awards in radio advertising and multiple Unity album and song of the year awards for several consecutive years.  He has recorded, mixed, and mastered hundreds of albums and CDs for artists on both coasts, Nashville, Canada, and Japan.  Locally, he records for many churches, Christian and secular artists and students.  He has thoroughly enjoyed seeing several of the young artists who started with Syntharts flourish and grow to nationally known and celebrated artists.

Michael is quick to acknowledge the Lord’s blessings in his life, and he is thankful every day he gets to go to “work” in the studio.