Artist Bio

For over 25 years, Anne-Marie McDermott has played concertos, recitals and chamber music in hundreds of cities throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and has become one of the most versatile, respected, and best-reviewed artists of her generation. In addition to several highly successful Artistic Directorships of important festivals and series, Anne-Marie McDermott continues her tenure as Music and Artistic Director of the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, which hosts world-renowned artists and orchestras from around the world.

Every time I hear McDermott in person or on recordings, I conclude anew that she’s one of the great American pianists of her generation. Her depth of insight, precision of phrasing, and command of the piano on all levels are ceaselessly marvelous.
— David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer
We have waited a long time for an American pianist of this stature…
— Gramophone
McDermott’s heart has heft and translucence, structural certainty and seasoned humanity...
— BBC Music Magazine

The breadth of Ms. McDermott’s repertoire reaches from Bach, Haydn and Beethoven to Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Scriabin, to works by today’s most influential composers. She has recorded the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas, solo works by Chopin, Bach’s English Suites and Partitas (Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine), and Gershwin’s Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony (also Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine). In 2013, she released a disc of Mozart Concerti with the Calder Quartet which was called “exceptional on every count” by Gramophone. She has recorded five Haydn piano sonatas and two Haydn Concertos with the Odense Philharmonic in Denmark including two cadenzas written by Charles Wuorinen. Ms. McDermott is currently in discussion to record the complete Beethoven Concerti.

In recent years, Ms. McDermott participated in the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s Silver Jubilee All Gershwin Program and embarked on a cycle of Beethoven Concertos at Santa Fe Pro Musica. She also premiered and recorded a new concerto by Poul Ruders with the Vancouver Symphony, alongside Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations, and returned to play Gershwin with the New York Philharmonic at the Bravo! Vail Festival. Other recent highlights include performing the Mozart Concerto, K. 595 with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Sir Donald Runnicles, the Bach D minor concerto with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the New York City-based Le Train Bleu. Anne-Marie McDermott began the 23/24 season with successful performances with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, both resulting in immediate re-engagements, and played Mozart with the New York Philharmonic at the McKnight Center in Stillwater, OK. Recent international highlights include recitals in France at the famed Toulouse Piano aux Jacobins, performing with The Sao Paolo Symphony at the Cartegena Festival, and an all-Haydn recital tour of China. Ms. McDermott will make her subscription debut with the Dallas Symphony in Fall 2024.

Ms. McDermott has and continues to perform with many leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, League of American Composers, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the symphonies of Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Colorado, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Atlanta, San Diego, New Jersey, Columbus, and Baltimore. She has also toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi.

Ms. McDermott was a longtime member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with whom she  still collaborates and performs. Highlights with CMS include the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas and a three-concert series of chamber music by Shostakovich. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music and was winner of the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women, the Young Concert Artists auditions, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Anne-Marie McDermott lives in New York City with her husband, Michael.

 

Recordings


VIDEOS

 

Photo (black and white): Robert Starobin