VISI Faculty: Alison d'Amato
Praised as “supple” by the New York Times and “an expert
pianist” by the Boston Globe, 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 a wide
variety of pioneering and established organizations. Alison is currently
Co-Artistic Director of the Florestan Recital Project, a unique group devoted
to the research and performance of song. She is committed to working with
musicians on creating new approaches to chamber music collaborations in
colleges and conservatories, and has been directly involved in developing
short- and long-term residencies that combine performance and teaching
activities in exploring such repertoire. She has served as pianist and
staff member of Opera Boston, a critically acclaimed company which recently
presented the North American premiere of Peter Eotvos’s opera Angels
in America. A prolific recitalist, Alison enjoys many collaborations with
today’s most exciting performers, and is sought after as a pianist
and artistic advisor for recitals across North America. She recently
moved to Toronto from Boston, and is enjoying a busy season of collaborations
on both sides of the border.
In 2006, Alison is enjoying several new performing and teaching associations. This fall, she began a newly-created position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at the University at Buffalo, in which she will be an active recitalist and coach for a growing music department. She is also co-founder of the Vancouver International Song Institute (VISI) which debuts in June 2007, an innovative new program that explores the importance of song repertoire with performers and audiences. Also in June 2007, Alison will join the faculty at Songfest in Malibu, CA, as faculty and co-coordinator of the young artists program with Florestan Recital Project. Later in November, Alison will perform with Florestan Recital Project at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music as part of a special residency project that features Ned Rorem’s evening-length song cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen. Other concert activities include a performance of Wolf’s Das Italienisches Liederbuch with Florestan Recital Project, a recital and master class with mezzo-soprano Lynne McMurtry at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, and a concert of composer Daniel Pinkham’s songs at Boston’s Jordan Hall.
Alison was a pianist at the Tanglewood Music Center in the Vocal Fellowship program during the summers of 2001 and 2002, and was subsequently awarded the Grace B. Jackson Prize, acknowledging her “extraordinary commitment of talent and energy.” She was a double-major at Oberlin College/Conservatory in Piano Performance and English, where she studied with Robert Mcdonald. Following that, Ms. d’Amato earned a double Master of Music degree in solo and collaborative piano from Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Anita Pontremoli and Anne Epperson. She has also been active as a pianist, coach, and teacher at New England Conservatory, where she is completing requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.