Letter From Vancouver: Ahead of VSO, Anne-Marie McDermott reflects on freedom won through discipline

This weekend, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott and Otto Tausk, the music director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, unite to present Beethoven’s Second and Fourth Piano Concertos, in three concerts. Stir, an independent hub for local arts and culture, interviews McDermott ahead of the performances. She says:

“I’ve lived this repertoire for probably 40 years. I do feel like my personal voice with this repertoire is at a place of real authenticity, because I’ve spent so many years with this music. I have something to say about it. I love to play it as if it had just been written. This is really important to me in recording or in concerts.”

With tour stops and concerts filling up her 2026 calendar, McDermott looks forward to continuing her journey with Beethoven, and performing all five concertos with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields as part of her final season as artistic director of the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in Colorado. Since taking on the role in 2011, McDermott has led the festival to a series of landmark achievements, including doubling the number of performance engagements, staging its first opera, expanding its commitment to commissioning new orchestral works, and continuing its emphasis on education and community outreach. To say her contributions required discipline would be a vast understatement.

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