Pre-eminent Italian concert violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg to collaborate with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott for Nov. 18 Performing Arts concert

GOSHEN, Ind. – Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, renowned concert violinist, author and teacher, will offer a recital with Anne-Marie McDermott, nationally recognized pianist, for Goshen College’s Performing Arts Series on Friday, Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall.

Tickets for the performance are selling fast, and can be purchased at the Welcome Center for $40, $35 and $20. Call (574) 535-7566 or email welcomecenter@goshen.edu for more information. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.goshen.edu/tickets.

Salerno-Sonnenberg has performed with orchestras around the world. The Vancouver Sun describes her as “a performer of splendid technical accomplishment and an artist of deep feeling informed by a subtle intelligence.”

Born in Rome, Italy, in 1961, Salerno-Sonnenberg immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 8 years old to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Later, she studied with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music. She became the youngest-ever prizewinner in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition in 1981. In 1983 she was honored with an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and in 1999 she received the Avery Fisher Prize for “outstanding achievement and excellence in music.”

Salerno-Sonnenberg has been a frequent guest on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and has been featured on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” She has also appeared on the TV show “Dharma & Greg” and is the subject of Paola di Florio’s documentary, “Speaking in Strings.” She has also released a number of recordings on the Angel/EMI Classics, Nonesuch and NSS Music labels. Her most recent album, “Together (with New Century Chamber Orchestra),” was released in 2009 and includes Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” Bartok’s “Romanian Dances” arranged for string orchestra and Gershwin’s “Bess You Is My Woman Now” from “Porgy and Bess” arranged for string orchestra.

In 1999, Salerno-Sonnenberg received an honorary master of musical arts degree from New Mexico State University, the first honorary degree ever awarded by the university. She is currently the music director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, a 19-member string orchestra from the San Francisco Bay area of which she is also a member.

For over 25 years McDermott has played concertos, recitals and chamber music throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. In 2011 she became the artistic director of the Vail Music Festival, which hosts the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony, in addition to presenting over 40 chamber music concerts throughout the summer. She is also Artistic Director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival (FL) 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.

Her repertoire spans from Bach and Haydn to Prokofiev and Scriabin to works by today’s most influential composers, such as Clarice Assad and Charles Wuorinen. Wuorinen’s last solo piano sonata was written for her and premiered at New York’s Town Hall. As a soloist, McDermott has recorded the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas, Bach English Suites and Partitas, and most recently, Gershwin Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony and Justin Brown.

McDermott studied at the Manhattan School of Music. She was a winner of the Young Concert Artists auditions and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Seating for those with disabilities is available and the minimum age of attendees is 5 years old. Tickets are nonrefundable.

The Goshen College Performing Arts Series debuted on Sept. 21, 1997. Since then, the college has hosted more than 100 concerts by some of the world’s greatest performers as part of the program.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College Acting News Bureau Coordinator Alysha Landis at (574) 535-7762 or alyshabl@goshen.edu.

### 

Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S. News & World Report‘s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.