Amy Schwartz Moretti

Director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings
The Caroline Paul King Violin Chair

Violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti has made solo and collaborative appearances that have taken her across the United States and abroad, performing in venues that include Weill Recital Hall, Rome’s Gonfalone Oratory, Severance Hall, Spivey Hall, Dali Museum, Edinburgh Castle, 92nd Street Y and the Crystal Cathedral.  Her New York concerto debut was in Carnegie Hall.  In recent engagements, she joined Robert McDuffie in Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins at the 2008 Aspen Music Festival, performed in Italy at the Rome Chamber Music Festival, was featured soloist at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina with Maestro Keith Lockhart conducting the Transylvania Symphony Orchestra, and made her solo debut with the Omaha Symphony and Music Director Thomas Wilkins.

Formerly concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony in Portland and earlier the Florida Orchestra in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater, Ms. Moretti’s orchestral career spanned nearly eight seasons.  In Florida, she served under music director Jahja Ling and his successor maestro Stefan Sanderling, and in Oregon, music director Carlos Kalmar.  She performed in the Oregon Symphony String Quartet and was artistic director of Florida’s Bay Area Music Summer Chamber Workshop for young musicians.  The late Skitch Henderson invited her to serve as guest concertmaster of the New York Pops in Carnegie Hall and Bryant Park.  She was guest concertmaster of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra with music director Michael Christie, and in a return engagement with the Oregon Symphony, was guest concertmaster with Itzhak Perlman on the conductor’s podium.

In 2007, Ms. Moretti was invited by international concert artist Robert McDuffie to join the faculty of the Mercer University Townsend School of Music as Director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings.  A dedicated teacher, she holds the Caroline Paul King Violin Chair and coordinates the Robert McDuffie and Friends Labor Day Festival for Strings.  She performs frequently with the distinguished artists of the McDuffie Center and since coming to Mercer, has joined Atlanta Symphony principal cellist Christopher Rex and pianist Elizabeth Pridgen to form Trio RPM, which has appeared in Florida, Alabama and Georgia.  She also performs in the Moretti Duo with her husband, jazz drummer and classical percussionist Steve Moretti; a television profile of them was aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “ArtBeat” in 2006.  Frequently a guest at national and international music festivals, Ms. Moretti appears in numerous concerts and instrumental combinations collaborating most recently with artists Jeremy Denk, Andres Diaz, James Ehnes, Anne-Marie McDermott, Robert McDuffie, Elmar Oliveira, David Shifrin, and the Diaz Trio.  She has been heard in live performances and interviews broadcast on classical radio stations and streamed online. 

Born in Wisconsin, Ms. Moretti spent her childhood in eastern North Carolina and California, beginning violin at age four and soloing with the Winston-Salem Symphony at twelve.  Winner of numerous awards and prizes including the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, she was presented in recital at the San Miguel de Allende International Music Festival.  Her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees are from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with distinguished artist/teacher Donald Weilerstein and graduated valedictorian.  In 2005, she was honored with the Institute’s Alumni Achievement Award. Earlier studies were at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division with Zaven Melikian, former concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra who continues to be her mentor. She began her studies with Suzuki pedagogue Joanne Bath and studied several summers at Meadowmount with Margaret Pardee, long-time Juilliard faculty member. Influential chamber music coaches include the late Isaac Stern, Peter Salaff, and the Cavani and Orion string quartets.  She was coached by some of the finest chamber musicians of our time as a Fellow at the Aspen Center for Advanced Quartet Studies and a participant in Isaac Stern’s Chamber Music Workshop in Carnegie Hall as well as the Intensive String Quartet Seminars at the Cleveland Institute. 

Ms. Moretti resides in Macon, Georgia with her husband Steve, their dog and two cats.  They are expecting their first child in October.  Upcoming performances next season include the Beethoven Violin Concerto in a return engagement with the OSU-Corvallis Symphony, collaboration with pianist Yakov Kasman, Winter Festival performances for the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and guest concertmaster appearances for CityMusic Cleveland with music director James Gaffigan.