Don is currently scoring the feature film “Number 2” directed by Toa Fraser and produced by Tim White, Lydia Livingstone and Philippa Campbell. He will later this year commence scoring the television series “Orange Roughie” for Screenworks.
Born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1959 Don graduated with a BA in English and Music in 1981 from Auckland University. Played French Horn and Percussion in the Auckland Symphonia 1979-82.
Don was a member of "From Scratch" percussion group from 1979-86. The group performed in Edinburgh, London, the Paris and Sydney Biennales, New York, Singapore, Tokyo, the South Pacific Arts Festival in Papua New Guinea, and on many tours of New Zealand and Australia. From Scratch also recorded three albums.
In 1980 Don formed Blam Blam Blam for whom he was the main writer as well as drummer and singer. McGlashan's song "Don't fight it, Marsha, it's bigger than both of us" was named "Song of the Year" in the 1982 New Zealand Recording Industry Awards and topped the independent charts in the UK.
He was a writer/performer in "The Front Lawn" with actor Harry Sinclair from 1985-90; combining songs, dance, theatre and film. The Front Lawn performed twice at the Edinburgh Festival, in 1988 and 1989, winning The Independent newspaper's theatre award for the festival in 1988, and in both years winning inclusion in the "Pick of the Fringe" season at London's Donmar Warehouse.
The Front Lawn also performed in Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand. The group's piece "The Reason For Breakfast" was described as "superb" by The New York Times. The Front Lawn made 2 albums of songs and 3 short films. Two of these, "Walk Short" and "The Lounge Bar" were purchased and screened by Channel 4 U.K., and "The Lounge Bar" was a finalist in the 1989 American Film Festival.
With Harry Sinclair and a group of Auckland performers including Jennifer Ward-Lealand, Michael Hurst, Inside Out Theatre Company and the Topp Twins, McGlashan co-founded Auckland's Watershed Theatre in 1990. He was heavily involved in the developing and programming of the venue in its first years.
He has been singer and main songwriter in The Mutton Birds from 1991 to the present. The group has released 4 albums, all of which have made the NZ top ten. They have had two top five singles and one, "The Heater" which debuted at No. 1.
McGlashan's song "Anchor Me" won the A.P.R.A Silver Scroll, NZ's top songwriting award, in 1994. The group signed to Virgin records UK in 1995, and lived in London from that year to 1999, touring all over the world.
Don has also written music for film and TV, including the TVNZ drama series "Mortimer's Patch" (with Wayne Laird and Keith Hunter) (1979), the children's TV series "Terry and the Gunrunners" (1985), the feature films "Other Halves" (1984), The Grasscutter (with Wayne Laird) (1988), "Absent Without Leave" (with David Long and Mark Austin) (1992), Jane Campion's feature "An Angel at my Table".(1990), the British Film Institute's "100 years of New Zealand Cinema" directed by Sam Niell and Judy Rymer (1995), and Paul Oremland's UK feature "Like It Is" (1997).
He also composed and arranged several fanfares and pieces for the 1990 Commonwealth Games, and was Assistant Musical Director of the opening ceremony. In 1993 he composed and arranged an 8 minute piece for orchestra, choir and soprano for the 1993 NZ Expo pavilion in Seville. The piece, a setting of part of Allen Curnow's "Landfall In Unknown Seas" was performed by Kiri Te Kanawa and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
He was Musical Director of the main Millennium Celebrations in Auckland in 1999. He now lives in Auckland with his wife, dancer and teacher Marianne Schultz, and their two children, Louis and Pearl. He is currently working on the soundtrack to the second series of the TV series "Street Legal" and writing songs for the next Mutton Birds album.
Don was awarded the Auckland University Literary Fellowship for 2001.
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