NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG LEADS THE NEW CENTURY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
IN PERFORMANCES WITH PIANIST ANNE-MARIE MCDERMOTT
APRIL 3-7
San Francisco, CA – March, XX, 2013 – Music Director Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the New Century
Chamber Orchestra return from their highly-successful eight-state national tour with five Bay Area
performances April 3-7 featuring acclaimed pianist Anne-Marie McDermott. Following her debut appearance
with the ensemble in March 2009, Ms. McDermott returns to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in A
Major, K. 414 and Chausson’s Concert for Piano, Violin and String Quartet, played by the full orchestra, and
featuring Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg on the violin. Completing the program is Golijov’s Last Round for double
string quartet and double bass.
In demand as a soloist and chamber musician, AnneMarie McDermott has held a long-standing
collaborative partnership with Nada SalernoSonnenberg and performed with New Century during
Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg’s inaugural 2009-2010
season as Music Director. As a duo, they released the
2005 CD record “Live” on the NSS label featuring
music by Beethoven, Schubert and Poulenc recorded
at the Lincoln Center. Future recording projects
include a release of the complete Brahms Violin and
Piano Sonatas.
A versatile performer of all musical genres, Anne-Marie McDermott has performed as guest soloist with many
leading orchestras throughout the United States including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra,
National Symphony and Baltimore Symphony. Since 1995, she has served as an artist member of the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing and touring with them extensively each season. In addition to her
performing career, Ms. McDermott serves as Artistic Director for numerous festivals including the famed Vail
Music Festival, Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival, and the Avila Chamber Music Celebration in Curacao.
Most recently, she was appointed Curator for Chamber Music at the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego. As
a recording artist, she has released solo and chamber records on the NSS label, Bridge Records and Image
Recordings.
“Anne-Marie McDermott Returns” will be given on four evenings in different locations around the Bay Area:
Wednesday, April 3 at 8 PM, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, Thursday, April 4 at 8 PM, First
Congregational Church, Berkeley, Friday, April 5 at 8 PM, First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto and
Sunday, April 7 at 5 PM, Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, San Rafael. New Century offers an Open
Rehearsal at 10 AM on Tuesday, April 2 at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco for a price of only $8. The Open
Rehearsal will offer a sneak preview of the concert repertoire, while allowing audiences to experience the
musical democracy of a rehearsal without a conductor.
Considered as one of the most prominent composers of his generation, Osvaldo Golijov uses traditional Jewish
and South American music throughout his compositional works. Last Round was written in memory of his
fellow countryman, the great Argentinean tango master, Astor Piazzolla. The piece is conceived as an idealized
bandoneón, the instrument which was at the heart of tango, and uses various techniques to represent the
physical and acoustically properties alongside elements of traditional tango style.
Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A Major, K.414 was written in 1782, at a time when the composer was making a
very good living during his early years in Vienna. One of his most lucrative undertakings was a set of three
concerti, of which the A Major concerto was the first to be written. Despite frequently working out
compositions in his head long before committing them to paper, there exists a rare and extensive sketch of this
particular work. The concerto is characterized by the style galant, a musical style that was epitomized by the
music of J.S. Bach who passed away that same year.
Ernest Chausson’s monumental chamber work, Concert for Piano, Violin and String Quartet, was inspired by
the great Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, who gave the first performance in Brussels in 1892 with five
distinguished colleagues. Although a highly original work, Chausson’s Concert is indebted to the Piano
Quintet by César Franck, Chasson’s teacher and, along with Wagner, perhaps one of his most important
influences.
CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE:
Anne-Marie McDermott Returns
April 3-7, 2013
Golijov: Last Round
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 414
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Chausson: Concert for Piano, violin and string quartet, Op. 21
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin
Concerts:
Open rehearsal: Tuesday, April 2, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, 10 AM - 12:30 PM
Wednesday, April 3, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, 8 PM
Thursday, April 4, First Congregational Church, Berkeley, 8 PM
Friday, April 5, First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto, 8 PM
Sunday April 7, Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael, 5 PM
Single tickets range in price from $29 to $59 and are on sale through City Box Office: www.cityboxoffice.com
or at (415) 392-4400. Open rehearsal tickets are priced at $8.
For further information on New Century, please visit www.ncco.org. Media contacts are listed at the end of the
release.
About New Century Chamber Orchestra:
The New Century Chamber Orchestra, one of only a handful of conductorless ensembles in the world, was
founded in 1992 by cellist, Miriam Perkoff, and violist, Wieslaw Pogorzelski. Musical decisions are made
collaboratively by the 19-member string ensemble, including San Francisco Bay Area musicians and those
who travel from across the U.S. and Europe to perform together. World-renowned violin soloist, chamber
musician and recording artist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg leads from the concertmaster chair. She joined the
ensemble as music director and concertmaster in January 2008, bringing “a new sense of vitality and
determination, as well as an audacious swagger that is an unmistakable fingerprint of its leader,” according to
Gramophone magazine.
In addition to performing classic pieces of chamber orchestra repertoire, New Century commissions important
new works, breathes life into rarely heard jewels of the past and performs world premieres. The New Century
Chamber Orchestra Featured Composer program commissions composers to write new works, with the goals
of expanding chamber orchestra repertoire and providing audiences with a deeper understanding of today’s
living composers. The orchestra provides insight into the breadth of the Featured Composer’s work by
performing a variety of pieces by the composer throughout the season.
In 2011, Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg and New Century embarked on the Orchestra’s first two national tours
together. The performances in the Midwest, East Coast, and Southern California garnered record-breaking
audiences and national critical acclaim. In January and February 2013, New Century followed with a highlysuccessful nine-state national tour, the largest and most ambitious artistic undertaking in the organization’s
history. In addition to touring efforts, New Century’s national footprint has also continued to grow with a
rapidly increasing national radio presence. The ensemble has been broadcast a total of 21 times on American
Public Media’s Performance Today, with each broadcast heard on 260 radio stations across the country.
The orchestra has released six compact discs. The two latest albums, Together (released August 2009) and
LIVE: Barber, Strauss, Mahler (released November 2010), were recorded with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg on
the NSS Music label. Other recordings include a 1996 collaborative project with Kent Nagano and Berkeley
Symphony Orchestra featuring the work of 20th century-Swiss composer Frank Martin, and Written With the
Heart’s Blood, a 1997 Grammy Award finalist, both on the New Albion label. In 1998 the orchestra recorded
and released works of Argentine composers Alberto Williams and Alberto Ginastera on the d’Note label, and,
in 2004, the orchestra recorded and released Oculus, a CD of Kurt Rohde’s compositions on the Mondovibe
label. All of the recordings have been distributed both internationally and in the United States. The orchestra’s
first concert DVD, filmed by Paola di Florio, director of the 1999 Academy Award-nominated film Speaking
in Strings, was released May 8, 2012. The DVD weaves together documentary footage and a live tour concert
from a February 2011 performance at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
About Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg:
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, an internationally-acclaimed soloist and chamber musician best known for her
exhilarating performances and passionate interpretations, joined the New Century Chamber Orchestra in
January 2008 as Music Director. Currently in her fifth season with New Century, the partnership has been
hailed as a tremendous success by audiences and critics alike – “a marriage that works,” in her words, and
renewing enthusiasm for “one of the most burnished and exciting ensembles in the Bay Area,” according to
Rich Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News.
A powerful and innovative presence on the recording scene, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg continues to enrich the
collection of her record label NSS Music, which she started in 2005. The label’s roster of artists includes Ms.
Salerno-Sonnenberg, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, horn player John Cerminaro, pianist/composer Clarice
Assad, conductor Marin Alsop, the American String Quartet, the Colorado Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica do
Estado de Sao Paulo, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Together, the first CD with New Century,
features Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The second CD, a live recording featuring Strauss’s
Metamorphosen, Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No. 5, has been praised
as “brilliant” (Oregon Music News), and allmusic.com advised, “For those who like orchestral music for
strings that takes nothing less than revelation as its goal, this is a must-have.”
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s professional career began in 1981 when she won the Walter W. Naumburg
International Violin Competition. In 1983 she was recognized with an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and in 1999,
she was honored with the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was born in Rome and
immigrated to the United States at the age of eight to study at The Curtis Institute of Music. She later studied
with Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. For more information on Nadja, please visit
www.nadjasalernosonnenberg.com and www.nssmusic.com, as well as Facebook and Myspace.
Press and Media Relations Contact:
Karen Ames Communications
Karen Ames and Brenden Guy
(415) 641-7474
karen@karenames.com
brenden@karenames.com
Sarah Riddle, Director of Marketing and Institutional Giving
(415) 357-1111, ext. 305
sriddle@ncco.org