Donna was born to a pair of teachers- one a musician and the other a mathematician- in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She spent her childhood in the northern region of the province where she struggled with her piano lessons but developed a strong appreciation of Van Halen, AC/DC and Pink Floyd. She eventually moved back to Winnipeg as a teenager and was exposed to the wonders of choral music; wonders that uncovered a love of singing. Eventually she found out that it was even more fun to sing when noone else sang alongside her so she went to Brandon University to study opera performance. Searching for repertoire that would flatter her voice it seemed the best choice was strange music so she decided to focus on 20th century repertoire for the latter half of her degree. Donna met her beloved at B.U., Paul Linklater, who showed her that there was more to modern pop music than prog/metal bands from the 70's so she began to experiment with singing Roy Orbison covers. In 2002 Donna and Paul moved to Toronto and she decided the traditional opera scene was most definitely not for her so she started a collaboration with clarinetist Julia Hambleton that eventually culminated in a chamber group called The Laments. In 2006 Paul bought Donna an autoharp as a present and she discovered that with this instrument she would be able to compose songs that had more than 3 chords so she decided to try her hand at songwriting. She liked it so much that she has decided to write 12 songs and release them in an album called “Loved Ones” due for release sometime this summer.