Moretti to Perform Debut Recital Thursday in Fickling Hall on the Mercer Campus

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MACON
– Critically acclaimed violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti will give her debut recital at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb 28, as director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University. Personally selected by McDuffie to direct the highly-selective Center for Strings, Moretti has brought a wealth of concert experience and musical talent to the University. She has made extensive solo and collaborative appearances across the United States and abroad in addition to her orchestral career as former concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony and Florida Orchestra.

Moretti will perform a new work by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich at the free concert.  In addition to the new piece by Zwilich, which was commissioned for internationally renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman, the program will include Sonatas by Brahms and Ravel and, an audience favorite, the Gershwin/Heifetz Three Preludes for violin and piano. Performing with her will be award-winning pianist Elizabeth Pridgen.

The concert will be held in Neva Langley Fickling Hall of the McCorkle Music Building, 1329 Adams Street, on Mercer’s Macon campus. The performance is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, and doors open 30 minutes prior to the performance. For more information, call Mercer’s Townsend School of Music at (478) 301-2748 or visit www.mercer.edu/mcduffie.

Lauded by The St. Petersburg Times for playing described as “breathtakingly rich in tone and color,” Moretti has appeared in prominent concert venues that include Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Severance Hall and Rome’s Gonfalone Oratory and many diverse venues such as the Dali Museum, Edinburgh Castle and the Crystal Cathedral.  She has collaborated with distinguished artists that include Jeremy Denk, Ida Kavafian, Valentina Lisitsa, Anne-Marie McDermott, Robert McDuffie, Edgar Meyer, Elmar Oliveira, Fred Sherry, and David Shifrin, and performed in numerous concerts and instrumental combinations at national and international music festivals. In addition to serving as director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, Moretti also holds the Caroline Paul King Chair in violin at Mercer University. 

Pridgen has been described by the American Record Guide as an artist with ‘big piano presence.” Her recent engagements include concerts at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and the Kosciuszko Foundation, as well as solo recitals in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York, and the Caribbean. She has performed with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble and with the Mark Morris Dance Group at Jacob’s Pillow. An active chamber musician, she frequently collaborates with members of the New York Philharmonic and Boston and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. A graduate of Peabody Conservatory of Music, she completed her graduate studies at The Julliard School, where she studied with Joseph Kalichstein.

Robert McDuffie Center for Strings

The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings is a highly selective program that prepares string students for success in the real world. Students study with some of the nation’s renowned string musicians, receiving music instruction of conservatory quality, while earning an academically well-rounded education from a comprehensive, nationally recognized university. The 2007-2008 academic year marks the inaugural year of The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. The Center is a special institute within Mercer’s Townsend School of Music on the Macon campus.

Townsend School of Music
Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music and the Townsend-McAfee Institute Graduate Studies in Church Music offer undergraduate and graduate professional music studies in a comprehensive university environment. The School is nationally recognized for its outstanding faculty, award-winning students, performance ensembles and state-of-the-art facilities. Mercer University is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music.

Mercer University
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University has 7,300 students; 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies; major campuses in Macon and Atlanta; four regional academic centers across the state; a university press; two teaching hospitals — Memorial Health University Medical Center and the Medical Center of Central Georgia; educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta; an engineering research center in Warner Robins; a performing arts center in Macon; and a NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu .