Press
“One admired the elegance of Ms. McDermott’s playing: electric in its eagerness but always poised, never out of control…”
“Anne-Marie McDermott plays with both technical virtuosity and evident joy. The music comes alive under her fingers.”
“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.”
“McDermott’s heart has heft and translucence, structural certainty and seasoned humanity…”
“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 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.”
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“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.”
“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.”
“I’ve enjoyed many other fine performances, but the one in Raleigh this weekend actually redefined the concerto for me. McDermott’s performance was, far and away, the most emotionally agile version of Beethovenian heroism I’ve encountered. Desert island stuff.”
“In a lifetime of listening, this is, hands down, the finest recording of Mozart piano concertos I’ve ever heard.”
Anne-Marie McDermott, pianist
One of the most dazzling American pianists of her generation, Anne-Marie McDermott has played concertos, recitals, and chamber music in hundreds of cities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is an insightful interpreter of the pinnacle of the repertoire, including Baroque and Classical masterpieces, 20th-century modernism, and music by the most influential composers of our time.
McDermott has soloed with many leading 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.
Highlights of McDermott’s 2026–27 season include performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Charlotte Symphony; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Chamber Players; concerts with the Ulysses Quartet in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Chile; and performances with violinist Paul Huang for Washington Performing Arts. She also performs the complete Beethoven violin sonatas with Mihaela Martin in Berlin and at the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, and appears at the Phoenix Chamber Music Festival, Rolandseck Festival in Germany, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
McDermott was recently appointed Artistic Director of the Mainly Mozart Spotlight Series in San Diego. She is also Artistic Director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival in Florida, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2027, and Artistic Director of the McKnight Center’s Chamber Music Festival at Oklahoma State University. She concluded her tenure as Artistic Director of the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in summer 2026.
McDermott is recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Mexico City’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería under Carlos Miguel Prieto. Her discography includes the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas, solo works by Chopin, Bach’s English Suites and Partitas, and Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
McDermott is a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women, and a winner of the Young Concert Artists auditions. She received a 2024 Honorary Doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied.
Schedule
Upcoming Concerts:
Past Concerts: