LACO to Feature Acclaimed Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott In Chamber Program

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will open its 2023/24 Season with Lineage: Coleridge-Taylor + Chausson, the first of two intimate programs in the Orchestra's Chamber Series curated by Concertmaster and Director of Chamber Music Margaret Batjer, on Saturday, September 30, 7:30 pm, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, and Sunday, October 1, 2023, 7:30 pm, at Zipper Hall in Downtown LA. Celebrated pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, who “plays with both technical virtuosity and evident joy” (The New York Times), joins LACO artists to trace the familial and musical lineage of Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his only daughter, Avril Coleridge-Taylor, a pianist/composer who followed in her father's musical footsteps. The program opens with Avril's Idylle for Flute and Pianoforte proceeded by her father's Clarinet Quintet in F-sharp minor. Lineage is also reflected in the final work, Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet by Chausson, which integrates the rhapsodic and introspective style of the composer's mentor, César Franck.   

LACO's Chamber Series showcases smaller groups of the Orchestra's musicians and guest artists on different facets of the diverse chamber repertoire from the 12th century and early Baroque schools through the 20th century.

McDermott has performed concertos, recitals and chamber music throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She also serves as Artistic Director of the Bravo! Vail Music and Ocean Reef Music Festivals, as well as Curator for Chamber Music for the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego. McDermott has recorded the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas, Bach's English Suites and Partitas, solo works by Chopin, and Gershwin's Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony. She also released a disc of Mozart Concerti with the Calder Quartet, hailed as “exceptional on every count” (Gramophone). Most recently, she recorded five Haydn piano sonatas and two Haydn Concertos with the Odense Philharmonic in Denmark. McDermott has toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi and is a longtime member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with whom she performs and tours extensively each season.

LACO recognizes the generous support of the Colburn Foundation. The Orchestra also receives public funding via grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; State of California; California Arts Council; the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. LACO gratefully acknowledges Hogan Lovells US LLP for generous pro bono support. Steinway is the official piano of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.  

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. For The Wallis engagement, Classical California KUSC's Brian Lauritzen will host a pre-concert talk with the artists at 6:30 pm.  

Zipper Hall is located at 200 S. Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90012.

For tickets ($46-$58, Zipper Hall; $19-$69, The Wallis) and information, please visit the link below or call 213 221 3920.

Margaret Batjer has served as LACO Concertmaster since 1998. She is also renowned as a violin soloist, chamber musician and teacher, and has established herself as a versatile and respected artist worldwide. Batjer has appeared as a soloist with America's leading orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Batjer has also performed with leading European ensembles such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the RT. National Symphony Orchestra (of Ireland), and Berlin Symphony Orchestra. An esteemed chamber musician, Batjer has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, and Sarasota Music as well as the Naples and Salzburg Festivals in Europe. In 2020, she formed the Los Angeles Piano Trio with colleagues Fabio Bidini and Andrew Shulman. Batjer has had an extensive recording career over the last several decades. Her most recent recording with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra includes the live premiere of the Pierre Jalbert Violin Concerto, and works by Bach, Pärt and Vasks released on the BIS label. She recorded the Bach Concerto for Two Violins with Salvatore Accardo and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe for the Philips label and is also featured on a 2003 Deutsche Grammophon recording pairing Batjer and Hilary Hahn as soloists with Jeffrey Kahane conducting Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. She has also made numerous chamber music recordings on the EMI, Nuova Era, and BMG labels. Batjer is Adjunct Professor of Violin at the USC Thornton School of Music and on the violin faculty at the Colburn School.

LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (LACO) ranks among the world's top musical ensembles. Beloved by audiences and praised by critics, the Orchestra is a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and, with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, a champion of contemporary composers. Headquartered in the heart of the country's cultural capital, LACO has been proclaimed “America's finest chamber orchestra” (Public Radio International), “LA's most unintimidating chamber music experience” (Los Angeles magazine), “resplendent” (Los Angeles Times), and “one of the world's great chamber orchestras"(KUSC Classical FM). Performing throughout greater Los Angeles, the Orchestra has made 32 recordings, including, most recently, a 2019 BIS Records release of works for violin and chamber orchestra that features Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and the world premiere recording of Pierre Jalbert's Violin Concerto (a LACO co-commission). LACO, with offices located in downtown Los Angeles, has toured Europe, South America and Japan, and performed across North America. www.laco.org.

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