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.”
One of the most dazzling American pianists of her generation, Anne-Marie McDermott has performed concertos, recitals, and chamber music in hundreds of cities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is among the most versatile, respected, and best-reviewed pianists of our time. McDermott continues her tenure as Music and Artistic Director of the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in Colorado through 2026, which hosts world-renowned artists and orchestras. She also serves as Artistic Director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival in Florida and the McKnight Center’s Chamber Music Festival at Oklahoma State University. Previously, she curated the Mainly Mozart Spotlight Series in San Diego.
Highlights of McDermott’s 2024-25 season include three performances of the Piano Concerto by 20th-century American composer Amy Cheney Beach—her subscription debut with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and a performance with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA). She makes her debut in Galway, Ireland, with a recital featuring works by Bach, Busoni, and Brahms at Music for Galway. Additional engagements include Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra (KY) and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Des Moines Symphony, Palm Beach Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA (WA). She also performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall in New York City and on tour in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, Ashland (OR), and Vienna (VA).
McDermott presents a special chamber music program at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, featuring Mozart’s Quintet in E-flat major and Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. As a member of the SPA Trio—with soprano Susanna Phillips and violist Paul Neubauer—she performs at Rockefeller University in New York City and Arizona Friends of Chamber Music in Tucson. She also appears in a chamber music program at the McKnight Center for the Performing Arts in Stillwater (OK).
In the 2023-24 season, McDermott performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, both leading to immediate re-engagements. She also played Mozart with the New York Philharmonic at the McKnight Center in Stillwater. Recent international highlights include recitals in France at the renowned Piano aux Jacobins festival in Toulouse, performances with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra at the Cartagena International Music Festival, and an all-Haydn recital tour of China.
McDermott’s extensive repertoire spans from Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven to Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Scriabin, including works by today’s leading composers. As a recording artist, she is currently recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Mexico City’s illustrious Sinfónica de Minería under conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto. She has also recorded the complete piano sonatas of Prokofiev, solo works by Chopin, and Bach’s English Suites and Partitas (an Editor’s Choice selection by Gramophone Magazine). Her recording of Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra also received Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice distinction. McDermott released an acclaimed album of Mozart concertos with the Calder Quartet, praised as “exceptional on every count” by Gramophone. Additionally, she has recorded five Haydn piano sonatas and two Haydn concertos with the Odense Philharmonic (Denmark), including cadenzas by the late American composer Charles Wuorinen.
In recent years, 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 premiered and recorded a new concerto by Danish composer Poul Ruders with the Vancouver Symphony, alongside Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and returned to Bravo! Vail to perform Gershwin with the New York Philharmonic. Other recent highlights include Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 595 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Sir Donald Runnicles, Bach’s 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.
McDermott continues to perform with major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, 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.
A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, McDermott is a recipient of the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women, a winner of the Young Concert Artists auditions, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient. In 2024, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music. McDermott lives in New York City with her husband, Michael.
SEPTEMBER 2024
