Alison D'Amato, artistic director

Praised as “supple” by the New York Times and “an expert pianist” by Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer, Alison d'Amato has built a reputation as a dynamic, innovative, and versatile musician. Equally committed to solo, vocal, and instrumental chamber music, she has been a valued member of several pioneering organizations and ensembles. 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. A prolific recitalist, Alison enjoys collaborations with today’s most exciting performers, and is sought after as a pianist and artistic advisor for recitals across North America.

Alison is currently enjoying several new performing and teaching associations. Last fall, she began a newly-created position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at the University at Buffalo, in which she is an active recitalist and coach for a growing music department. Since 2003, Alison has been an Artistic Co-Director of the Florestan Recital Project, a unique group devoted to the research and performance of song, currently Artists in Residence at Dickinson College and Boston Conservatory. She has also worked closely with several Canadian musicians and pedagogues in creating the Vancouver International Song Institute (VISI), a new program for innovative song performance and study geared towards performers and audiences that debuted in June 2007. Also this year, Alison was engaged with Florestan Recital Project to design and teach a new program for young artists at Songfest (Malibu, CA) that focused on American song.  

Recent seasons included a wide variety of performances in both Canada and the US. In November 2006, Alison was pianist and Music Director for Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmelites, an acclaimed production by Toronto’s Opera In Concert that featured soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian as Blanche. She appeared with Boston’s innovative Radius Ensemble in a varied program of chamber music, and was one of several pianists premiering an extended group of piano solos by Israeli composer Lior Navok at a concert co-sponsored by Boston’s Goethe Institute and the Israeli Consulate. Her recent recital with acclaimed Canadian mezzo-soprano Lynne McMurtry, which explored settings of the poetry of Walt Whitman, earned her a rave review in the Toronto Star, which stated that “Art doesn’t get any more moving than this.”

She was a pianist at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2001 and 2002, and was subsequently awarded the Grace B. Jackson Prize, acknowledging her 'extraordinary commitment of talent and energy.' Ms. d’Amato attended Oberlin 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.