January 13, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Legendary love stories that inspired some of the most romantic music in the classical repertoire are featured in “All About Love,” an Oregon Symphony Classical concert led by Music Director Carlos Kalmar featuring concertmaster Amy Schwartz Moretti making her Symphony solo concerto debut with Berg’s Violin Concerto on Feb. 11, 12 and 13 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an additional performance on Feb. 10 at Salem’s Smith Auditorium. The program also features the music of Ravel Wagner and Fauré.
The Feb. 13 concert is sponsored by the Fred Andrianoff Family,
while the
Feb. 12 performance, part of
the Symphony’s Sunday Encore series, is supported in part
by grants from the Jackson Foundation and the Oregon Cultural
Trust, investing in Oregon’s arts, humanities and heritage. Media
support is provided by The Oregonian. Lufthansa is the
exclusive airline sponsor for the Symphony’s Classical series.
“Every piece on this program has something to do with love,” says Kalmar. “We’ll be performing both traditional ‘love’ music like Wagner’s “Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde,” and we’ll also take a step aside from traditional repertoire to present Berg’s Violin Concerto, which he dedicated to the memory of Manon Gropius, the daughter of his friends Alma and Walter Gropius, who died at age 18.”
Kalmar chose this concerto for Schwartz Moretti to perform for her Symphony concerto debut. “The demands of the Berg concerto go beyond technical things; it’s an interpretation issue,” he explains. “It’s a concerto that does not work if you just put your fingers on the right place at the right time.” Schwartz Moretti, who learned Berg’s concerto for this concert, finds the work an interesting challenge. “Not very many violinists have this piece in their repertoire,” she says. “I’m especially pleased that I get the opportunity to play it with my colleagues.”
Other music featured in the concert includes Fauré’s “Pelléas and Mélisande” Suite, originally written as incidental music to Maeterlinck’s Symbolist play, as well as Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloë” Suite No. 2.
This concert also marks the third in the Symphony’s new Sunday Encore series, a cycle of four full-length repeats of evening classical performances on Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m.
Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
Pre-concert talks: Music Director Carlos Kalmar and KBPS host Shaun Yu will lead a discussion one hour before the concert of the works to be performed. Media support for “Pre-Concert Talks” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Saturday: Music Director Carlos Kalmar will speak briefly from the podium in “Saturday Interactive.” Media support for “Saturday Interactive” is provided by KINK fm102.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. and Monday, Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an added performance on Friday, Feb. 10 at Willamette University’s Smith Auditorium in Salem. Tickets range in price from $20 to $85 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Customer Service Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Discounted tickets for groups of eight or more are available through the Group Sales hotline at (503) 416-6380. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
Violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti joined the Oregon Symphony as its new Concertmaster in August 2004. Her first appearance with the orchestra was December 2003 when she served as guest concertmaster and soloist performing Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” Robert King conducting. She comes to Portland from the Tampa Bay area where, at the age of 23, she was appointed concertmaster of The Florida Orchestra, a position she held for five years. She also appears as guest concertmaster for the New York Pops in Carnegie Hall.
In addition to her orchestral career, Schwartz Moretti is an active soloist appearing annually since 2000 on the Masterworks Series of The Florida Orchestra. She has performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Joseph Silverstein conducting, and Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto in D minor with Jahja Ling at the podium. The American Record Guide hailed her as the “brilliant soloist” during her 2002-2003 performances of the Barber Violin Concerto with Stefan Sanderling conducting. The Tampa Tribune said she “kept listeners entranced,” and praised her performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto in the 2003-2004 season, also under the baton of Stefan Sanderling, as “majestic” and “eloquent.” The St. Petersburg Times proclaimed, “Moretti performed with a beguiling combination of light, transparency and emotional weight.” Schwartz Moretti returned to Florida in March 2005 to perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 with Mr. Sanderling.
A dedicated chamber musician, Schwartz Moretti has performed in both Carnegie Hall and Weill Recital Hall; at the Aspen, Margess International of Switzerland, and Sarasota music festivals; and venues as diverse as the Dali Museum, Washington & Lee University and First Presbyterian Church of St. Petersburg. She has collaborated in a variety of small ensembles with colleagues from the Florida Orchestra in addition to appearing with the Moretti-Polera-Kluksdahl Piano Trio. As first violinist of the Cambiata String Quartet, she was a Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival Center for Advanced Quartet Studies, participated in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall, was awarded the Florence Allen Award at the 1995 Carmel Chamber Music Competition, and was First Prize Winner of the 1995 Darius Milhaud Performance Prize Auditions. Committed to chamber music and education, she is Co-founder and Artistic Director of the not-for-profit Bay Area Music Summer Chamber Music Workshop, an intensive two-week experience for young musicians held at Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Schwartz Moretti began violin study at the age of four and first soloed with a professional orchestra (the Winston-Salem Symphony) when she was twelve. She went on to win numerous concerto competitions performing with the North Carolina Symphony, the Raleigh Symphony, the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, and the Tar River Orchestra in her home state and the Richmond Symphony in Virginia. In 1998 she was invited to Carnegie Hall for a solo debut performance with the New York Youth Symphony, Mischa Santora conducting. In addition to concerto awards, she has won prizes and honors in national and international solo competitions. She appeared in recital at the San Miguel de Allende International Music Festival in Mexico as the featured winner of the 1997 Irving M. Klein International String Competition. As First Place Violin Winner of the 1994 ASTA National Solo Competition, she was invited to perform for a joint meeting of the MENC and ASTA national convention. She was also a prizewinner at the Eighteenth Annual D’Angelo Young Artist Competition and the Forty-first Annual Washington International Competition.
As a student of Donald Weilerstein, Schwartz Moretti earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was valedictorian. She graduated with distinction from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Department where on Saturdays she studied a varied curriculum of music theory, history, and chamber music as a high school student. Summers, she attended the Meadowmount School of Music and Margess International Music Festival of Switzerland on scholarship. She has studied chamber music with Isaac Stern, Earl Carlyss, Peter Salaff and members of the Orion, Emerson, Cleveland, Juilliard, Tokyo, Guarneri, American and Cavani string quartets. Other distinguished teachers who influenced her development are Zaven Melikian of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Margaret Pardee of The Juilliard School, and Joanne Bath of East Carolina University.
Schwartz Moretti performs on a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin made in Paris, France in 1874. She is married to jazz drummer and percussionist Steve Moretti. They reside in Portland with their dog Yoshi and two cats, Miles and Cole.
