MACON – Mercer University professor and critically acclaimed violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti will celebrate the release of her debut album, “Kaleidoscope,” with a CD release concert and party on Monday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. at Neva Langley Fickling Hall in the McCorkle Music Building on the University’s Macon campus. Moretti is executive director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer’s Townsend School of Music and holds the Caroline Paul King Violin Chair at the School.
Moretti’s debut album is a compilation of showpieces that have special personal significance in her life. “Kaleidoscope” features the music of Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Kreisler, Novacek, Martinon, Massinet, and Moszkowski. Also featured on the recording are Moretti’s colleagues at Mercer University, pianists Elizabeth Pridgen, distinguished artist at the McDuffie Center and G. Leslie Fabian Piano Chair in the Townsend School of Music, and renowned violinist Robert McDuffie, Distinguished University Professor and holder of the Genelle and Mansfield Jennings Distinguished University Chair in Music.
Moretti has been director of the McDuffie Center for Strings since January 2007. 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. An avid chamber musician, she has recently performed at the music festivals of Aspen, Brevard, Amelia Island, Madison, Seattle, Rome and Chamber Music Northwest and in numerous concerts and instrumental combinations. She has 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. She has been featured as soloist in many performances with orchestras including the Omaha Symphony and music director Thomas Wilkins and at the Brevard Music Center with Keith Lockhart conducting. Moretti has been guest concertmaster with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the New York Pops and with the music festival orchestras of Brevard and Colorado. During the summer, she serves as Concertmaster of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in Wyoming and has served as Concertmaster of CityMusic Cleveland, a chamber orchestra bringing free concerts into the neighborhoods of northeastern Ohio.
Recorded at Neva Langley Fickling Hall in April 2010, the CD was engineered by multi-Grammy winning engineer Leslie Ann Jones, who is director of music and scoring at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. Steve Moretti, two-time Grammy-nominated drummer, produced the recording. All post-production work was completed at Skywalker Ranch. The CD contains 14 tracks and is approximately 63 minutes long.
“Kaleidoscope” will be released worldwide on SRM Classical and distributed by Dorian/Sono Luminus. CDs are $15 and will be signed by Moretti after the concert. Tickets for the concert are $10 general admission and free with Mercer ID. They can be purchased through Mercer Ticket Sales at (478) 301-5470 or online at music.mercer.edu.
About Townsend School of Musis
Mercer is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music. Mercer’s Townsend School of Music and the Townsend-McAfee Institute for 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 and is home to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings.
About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,200 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
–30–
