Metropolitan Opera Soprano Susanna Phillips joins hand with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artist members Anne-Marie McDermott & Paul Neubauer Sunday, April 21 – 2:30pm for Chamber Music Sedona
Susanna Phillips demonstrates rare stylistic fluency, canny pathos, and dynamic finesse. Susanna Phillips. Remember the name. -Financial Times
Sedona AZ (April 16, 2013) – Three of today’s most celebrated artists will join hands for one concert only when Metropolitan Opera super star soprano Susanna Phillips and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center artists members Paul Neubauer, viola and pianist Anne Marie McDermott bring the Big Apple to Sedona Sunday, April 21 for a 2:30pm concert at St. John Vianney Church, 180 St. John Vianney Lane in Sedona. The concert is made possible with support from Martha Mertz & Edward Ingraham, and Linda & Aiden Ferry.
“It was three years ago in New York City that Edward Ingraham and I sat down for breakfast with Mr. Neubauer, who suggested the program, and we are so pleased to bring this extraordinary program to Sedona for all to enjoy,” said Bert Harclerode, CMS executive director. “These are three of the most exceptional artists who appear regularly on many of the world’s greatest stages, and the program promises to be nothing less than superlative.”
The afternoon program will include music from around the world including the British Isles, Austria, Russia, France and Italy including Gounod, Schumann, Liszt, Mascheroni, Tosti and others that can be found on the CMS web site.
Susanna Phillips was born in Alabama and is the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award recipient. She continues to establish herself as one of today’s most sought-after singing actors and recitalists. In a February 2013 review, the New York Times wrote, “Ms. Phillips’s voice, with its silvery timbre, expressive potency and gleaming top notes, has quickly earned her repeat engagements at the Metropolitan Opera.” During the 2012-13 Phillips took the stage of the Met for her fifth consecutive season, this time to perform Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, conducted by Edward Gardner. Her opera season in New York City continues with her return to the Perlman stage at Carnegie Hall for a special concert performance, portraying Stella in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire opposite Renae Fleming—a role which she will then perform at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Phillips also makes her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall this season, presenting a program with accompanist Myra Huang in Weill Recital Hall. Phillips will star twice during the 2013-2014 Met season as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, and then in Puccini’s opera La Boehme.
Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott is Vail Bravo! artistic director and a consummate artist who balances a versatile career as a soloist and collaborator. She performs over 100 concerts a year in a combination of solo recitals, concerti and chamber music. Her repertoire choices are eclectic and in the recent seasons, Ms, McDermott performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, the North Carolina, Charlotte, Huntsville, Alabama, and San Diego Symphonies, the Oregon Mozart Players, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber music performer, Anne-Marie McDermott was named an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) in 1995 who performs and tours extensively with CMS each season. She continues a long standing collaboration with the highly acclaimed violinist, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg. As a duo, they performed in Sedona in 2002, and since have released a CD titled “Live” on the NSS label and plan to release the Complete Brahms Violin and Piano Sonatas in the future. Ms. McDermott is also a member of the renowned piano quartet, Opus One, with colleagues Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom and Peter Wiley. Ms. McDermott regularly performs at Festivals across the United States including, Spoleto, Mainly Mozart, Sante Fe, La Jolla Summerfest, Mostly Mozart, Newport, Caramoor, Bravo, Chamber Music Northwest, Aspen, Music from Angelfire, and the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, among others.
Violist Paul Neubauer’s exceptional musicality and effortless playing distinguish him as one of his generation’s quintessential artists. Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21, he is the chamber music director of the OK Mozart Festival in Oklahoma and the “Chamber Music Extravaganza” in Curacao. Upcoming projects include the world premiere of a new viola concerto by Aaron Jay Kernis with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as well as performances with the Emerson Quartet at Carnegie Hall. A two-time Grammy nominee, he recorded works by Schumann with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott as well as numerous pieces that were composed for him: Joan Tower’s Purple Rhapsody for viola and orchestra and Wild Purple for solo viola; Viola Rhapsody, a concerto by Henri Lazarof; and Soul Garden for viola and chamber ensemble by Derek Bermel. His recording of the Walton Viola Concerto was re-released on Decca. He has appeared with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Santa Cecilia, English Chamber and Beethovenhalle orchestras. He is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College. Mr. Neubauer has been an Artist of the Chamber Music Society since 1989.
Edward Ingraham will deliver the pre-concert talk in the Don Bosco Room at St from 1:15-1:55pm free to all ticket holders. General admission tickets at $19 and Reserved tickets are $40 and may be purchased on line at www.chambermusicsedona.org or by calling 928.204.2415.
Chamber Music Sedona’s 30th Anniversary Season is made possible with underwriting support from Aspey, Watkins & Diesel, P.L.L.C., Attorneys at Law. Additional support comes from The City of Sedona, The Arizona Commission on the Arts with funding from the State of Arizona and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Verde Valley Medical Center, The Margaret T. Morris Foundation and WESTAF.