Chattanooga Symphony & Opera music director Robert Bernhardt calls violinist Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott not only "two of the most important classical artists onstage today" but "two of the most spectacular women in the business" and "two of my closest friends in music."
Both women will join Bernhardt and the CSO Thursday and March 26 for guest performances.
The subject of the 2000 Academy Award-nominated film "Speaking in Strings," Salerno-Sonnenberg has impressed audiences as a professional violinist for nearly 30 years.
"She has created her own artistic language. It's very personal and very deeply felt interpretations of the greatest concertos written for the violin," said Bernhardt.
Last year, Salerno-Sonnenberg enojoyed a successful first season as music director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra.
McDermott has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi and Hong Kong Philharmonic, among others.
She was named an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1995.
"She gives it her all from the emotional highs to the profound quieter moments," said Bernhardt.
He met both musicians in the early '80s, when he was an an associate conductor with the Louisville Orchestra.
"They were both kids, maybe very early 20s. We just hit it off like gangbusters."
Salerno-Sonnenberg came in as a soloist on a Tchaikovksy concert, he said, which was "unlike any other I'd heard and unlike any other I had conducted," he said. "It convinced me there was so much more to look for and enjoy."
For the Chattanooga concerts, both artists will perform works from their respective recent recordings. Salerno-Sonnenberg will take on Astor Piazzolla's "Four Seasons of Buenos Aires," while McDermott will play George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F.
The evening promises to be, Bernhardt said, "an absolute joy."
IF YOU GO
What: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Anne-Marie McDermott in concert with Chattanooga Symphony & Opera.
When: 8 p.m. Thursday and March 26.
Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.
Admission: $19-$76.
Phone: 267-8583.
Web site: www.chattanoogasymphony.org.
Holly Leber is a reporter and columnist for the Life section. She has worked at the Times Free Press since March 2008. Holly covers “everything but the kitchen sink" when it comes to features: the arts, young adults, classical music, art, fitness, home, gardening and food. She writes the popular and sometimes-controversial column Love and Other Indoor Sports. Holly calls both New York City and Saratoga Springs, NY home. She earned a bachelor of arts ...
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