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Piano
Praised as "supple" by The New York Times and "an expert pianist" by The Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer, Alison d'Amato has built a reputation as a dynamic and versatile musician. Equally committed to solo, vocal, and instrumental chamber music, she has been a valued member of several pioneering organizations. Since 2003, Ms. d'Amato has been an Artistic Co-Director of Florestan Recital Project, a unique group devoted to the research and performance of song. She works closely with several Canadian and American colleagues on the Vancouver International Song Institute (VISI), an innovative program for song performance and study that debuted in June 2007. She is currently Visiting Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo, where she is a recitalist and coach for a growing music department.
A passionate advocate of new music, Alison has collaborated with many of today's major and emerging composers, including John Harbison, Ned Rorem, Lior Navok, and James Rolfe. She is currently coordinating Florestan Recital Project's 2010 Vanguard Festival, which will present world premieres of commissioned song cycles by Thea Musgrave, Libby Larsen, Stephen Paulus, and Robert Pound. The festival will be the culminating event of Florestan's 3-year position as Musical-Artists-in-Residence at Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA). In fall 2009, Alison will be pianist and Co-Director of Florestan's BarberFest: The Complete Songs of Samuel Barber in Boston, MA, which will include many unpublished songs obtained by special permission from the U.S. Library of Congress and Barber's estate.
In 2008, she received rave reviews for her work with Toronto's Opera In Concert as pianist and music director for Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, after her lauded 2006 music directorial debut with OIC in Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmelites that featured soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian.
Ms. d'Amato has been a guest artist with chamber ensembles such as Radius Ensemble and the Buffalo Chamber Players. Her recital with acclaimed Canadian mezzo-soprano Lynne McMurtry, which explored settings of Walt Whitman texts, earned her a review in The Toronto Star stating that "Art doesn't get any more moving than this."
Ms. d'Amato received the Grace B. Jackson Prize from Tanglewood Music Center in 2002 acknowledging her "extraordinary commitment of talent and energy." Ms. d'Amato attended Oberlin College and Conservatory, and earned a double Master of Music degree in solo and collaborative piano from Cleveland Institute of Music. In May 2007, she received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from New England Conservatory of Music.
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