Amy Schwartz-Moretti
Invited to Carnegie Hall for her solo concerto debut in 1998, violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti is recognized for her musical elegance and grace. She has made extensive solo and collaborative appearances in addition to orchestral performances as former concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony and The Florida Orchestra. In recent seasons, she performed the concerti of Brahms and Beethoven with the Corvallis Symphony, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.5 at the Brevard Music Center with Keith Lockhart conducting, and debut concerts with the Omaha Symphony and music director Thomas Wilkins. Commenting on the Mozart performance, the Classical Voice of North Carolina highlighted Ms. Moretti’s cadenzas: “smoking passagework, languorous, intimately inflected and exquisitely shaped tones, an infallible sense of timing – some of the most exquisite playing I’ve heard this season.”
An avid chamber musician, she has performed in prominent concert halls and numerous diverse venues. In addition to frequent appearances at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, she has performed in recent seasons at the music festivals of Aspen, Brevard, Amelia Island, Madison, Rome and Chamber Music Northwest in numerous concerts and instrumental combinations. After celebrated performances of Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins at Chamber Music Northwest with internationally renowned violinist Robert McDuffie, The Oregonian wrote: “The unfamiliar music flowed as naturally as water; critics resist the word “perfect” for good reason – can any interpretation be perfect? – but the temptation in this case was strong.” Many of her performances have been streamed online and broadcast on FM Radio. Performance Today has aired trio performances in collaboration with Detroit Symphony principal cellist Robert deMaine and Avery Fisher career grant recipient Adam Neiman, pianist. She has also recently collaborated with esteemed artists Lynn Harrell, David Shifrin, Elmar Oliveira and James Ehnes as well as members of the Guarneri String Quartet and Díaz String Trio.
Ms. Moretti has been Director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at the Mercer University Townsend School of Music since January 2007. Previously, she was concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony in Portland and The Florida Orchestra in Tampa Bay. Throughout her career she has been an advocate for chamber music. She developed Bay Area Music Summer Chamber Workshop in Florida and Portland Summer Ensembles in Oregon to encourage collaboration among young musicians as they study and perform. She currently coordinates the Robert McDuffie and Friends Labor Day Festival for Strings in Georgia and is Education Coordinator of the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Italy. A dedicated teacher, she holds the Caroline Paul King Violin Chair in addition to the directorship of the McDuffie Center. She balances her teaching and administrative responsibilities with solo and collaborative engagements at music festivals and concert artist series across the nation and abroad. She has formed the Moretti Duo with her husband, drummer and percussionist Steve Moretti, and Trio RPM with her Mercer colleagues, Atlanta Symphony principal cellist Christopher Rex and pianist Elizabeth Pridgen; they have appeared in Florida, Alabama and Georgia in addition to performances on campus. At the 2009 Madison Chamber Music Festival, Trio RPM premiered Hardy’s Lark by Minnesota composer Libby Larsen in a performance commissioned for them. Ms Moretti has been Concertmaster of CityMusic Cleveland, a chamber orchestra bringing free concerts into the neighborhoods of northeastern Ohio, and serves as Concertmaster of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, during the summer. She has been guest concertmaster with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the New York Pops as well as the music festival orchestras of Brevard and Colorado. Ms. Moretti performs on a Jean Baptise Vuillaume violin made in Paris in 1874.
Born in Wisconsin, Ms. Moretti spent her childhood in eastern North Carolina and California. Her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees are from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Donald Weilerstein graduating valedictorian. Preparatory studies were at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Zaven Melikian. Earlier studies were with Joanne Bath and Margaret Pardee. As first violinist of the award-winning Cambiata String Quartet, she performed on the main stage of Carnegie Hall under the guidance of Isaac Stern. Her chamber music mentors also include Peter Salaff, Susan Bates, and the Cavani and Orion String Quartets. She resides in Macon, Georgia with her husband and two young sons. Her debut solo CD Kaleidoscope was released in 2011.
