The New York Times“One admired the elegance of Ms. McDermott’s playing: electric in its eagerness but always poised, never out of control…”
St. Louis Post Dispatch“Anne-Marie McDermott plays with both technical virtuosity and evident joy. The music comes alive under her fingers.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer“Her playing has rigor: Transitional passages that some pianist throw away are her source of momentum. More reflective passages have elasticity in the phrasing, which is where the jazz element is strongly felt. Her pounding rhythms in the final movement of the concerto were so compellingly urban that the Parisian traffic scenes depicted in An American in Paris, which the orchestra played later, seemed a bit languid.”
Fanfare“In a lifetime of listening, this is, hands down, the finest recording of Mozart piano concertos I’ve ever heard.”
San Jose Mercury News“An exquisite player, McDermott established the tone and mood of the opening Allegro: firm touch, clear lines—tailored to the shadowy, up-down dynamic flow of the string orchestra. McDermott was the spine of the performance, with her crisp and crashing lines.”
Nashville Scene“[Nashville Symphony performed] Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat major, a work that is both playful and fiery in equal measure. Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott,…mostly emphasized the concerto’s brilliant side during her performance…Yet there was also warmth and immediacy in her playing, especially in the lyrical slow movement. Indeed, she played this movement with unfailing concentration, which kept the audience riveted even when one patron inadvertently smashed a drinking glass or plate on the floor. “
BBC Music Magazine”McDermott’s heart has heft and translucence, structural certainty and seasoned humanity…”
Aspen Times“McDemott grounded any impetuosity with burnished piano playing. Rhythmically precise, she never lost a touch that created richness of sound, weaving dynamic changes in sync with Salerno-Sonnenberg.”
Arizona Daily Star“McDermott embodies all the technical skills we have come to expect from her: a firm yet elegant touch that is alternately purposeful and spontaneous. She produces clean, crisp lines where every note speaks for itself, and balances mood and tempo with a fluidity that sometimes added a wholly contemporary sound that could have been written 25 years ago instead of 225 years ago. But it was what we saw in her expressions, the emotional connection she made to the music, that drew us to her. She winced and squeezed her eyes shut when the music slowed, then smiled as her fingers danced along the keys when the tempo raced. In the second movement, one of the longest piano solos of the 30-minute work, McDermott got lost in sweeping, lush passages.”
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. In addition to performing, she also serves as Artistic Director of the Bravo! Vail Music and Ocean Reef Music Festivals, as well as Curator for Chamber Music for the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego.
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. Ms. McDermott has recorded the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas, Bach’s English Suites and Partitas (Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine), solo works by Chopin, 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 (“exceptional on every count.”—Gramophone). Most recently she recorded five Haydn piano sonatas and two Haydn Concertos with the Odense Philharmonic in Denmark including two cadenzas written by Charles Wuorinen.
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 Rachmaninov’s Paganini Variations, and returned to play Gershwin with the New York Philharmonic at the Bravo! Vail Festival. Ms. McDermott has also performed the Mozart Concerto, K. 595 with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by 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. In 2012, Ms. McDermott performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Bramwell Tovey. She also did a west coast tour with award-winning violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century Chamber Orchestra; the complete Beethoven piano trios with Ida Kavafian and Peter Wiley; and the complete Beethoven cello sonatas with Lynn Harrell. Other recent international highlights include a performance of Schumann’s piano concerto with the Sao Paulo Symphony at the Cartagena Festival and an all-Haydn recital tour of China. Ms. McDermott gave special performances of works by Charles Wuorinen in New York and at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., in celebration of the composer’s seventy-fifth birthday. His last piano sontata, which she has recorded, was written for her and premiered at New York’s Town Hall.
Ms. McDermott has performed with many leading orchestra including the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Seattle Symphony, National Symphony, Houston Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, League of American Composers, Moscow Virtuosi, Hong Kong Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and Baltimore Symphony, among others. Ms. McDermott has toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi.
She is a longtime member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with whom she performs and tours extensively each season. With CMS she has performed the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas and chamber music, as well as a three-concert series of chamber music by Shostakovich. Ms. McDermott enjoys touring as a member of OPUS ONE, a chamber group with Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom, and Peter Wiley. Together they have commissioned over 15 new works. She also tours annually with violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and performs as part of a trio with sisters, Kerry and Maureen McDermott. 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, and her Maltese, Sammy.
