Ahead of VSO Beethoven program, Anne-Marie McDermott reflects on freedom won through discipline
Star pianist looks back on ambitions and accomplishments as a performer, artistic director, and mentor, and sees a new career chapter opening
Anne-Marie McDermott. Photo by Sophie Zhai
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra presents Anne-Marie McDermott from September 19 to 21
MASTER CONCERT PIANIST Anne-Marie McDermott returns to Vancouver this September, bringing a taste of her upcoming season dedicated to Beethoven’s piano concertos.
The internationally renowned pianist joins the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from September 19 to 21, led by Maestro Otto Tausk. She will perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Piano Concerto No. 4, continuing a series of engagements showcasing McDermott’s long-standing relationship with the Beethoven pieces.
“I’ve lived this repertoire for probably 40 years,” McDermott says over a Zoom call. “I do feel like my personal voice with this repertoire is at a place of real authenticity, because I’ve spent so many years with this music. I have something to say about it. I love to play it as if it had just been written. This is really important to me in recording or in concerts.”
McDermott recently finished a recording of the complete Beethoven concertos in collaboration with Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico City, under music director Carlos Miguel Prieto’s conductorship. With decades of collaborative history between them, McDermott emphasizes the level of trust between her and Prieto, and recounts the “sense of accomplishment” after this large and complex production.
“It’s like your life depends on every take,” McDermott says. “The level of focus is impossibly difficult and incredibly inspiring at the same time, but we’ll remind ourselves, we’re just making music. Let’s enjoy the music-making through these long days of recording. I think and believe that will seep into the actual recordings themselves.”
Born in Queens, New York, McDermott grew up accompanying her older sisters, who played the cello and violin, playing orchestral reductions and practicing intonations together. Though she jokes about being forced into collaborations at a young age, she reflects on those early experiences with gratitude.
“Collaboration is in my DNA,” McDermott says. “I was a rebel, and I really had to find discipline within myself. I had to learn how to learn, not be told how to learn. My greatest teachers have been my colleagues, because of this respect, trust, and sense of collaboration. Everything I learned as a chamber musician has made me a good artistic director.”
Beyond her broad accomplishments as a pianist, McDermott serves as the artistic director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival in Florida and the McKnight Center Chamber Music Festival in Oklahoma, and is a former curator of San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Spotlight Series. With tour stops and concerts filling up her 2026 calendar, she looks forward to continuing her journey with Beethoven, and performing all five concertos with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields as part of her final season as artistic director of the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in Colorado. Since taking on the role in 2011, McDermott has led the festival to a series of landmark achievements, including doubling the number of performance engagements, staging its first opera, expanding its commitment to commissioning new orchestral works, and continuing its emphasis on education and community outreach. To say her contributions required discipline would be a vast understatement.
“The greater your discipline in life, the greater your freedom,” McDermott says. “I have a much clearer understanding of what musical freedom means, because of the discipline and structure I’ve lived with. I’m proud of everything I’ve accomplished at the Bravo! Festival, and excited about this next chapter where I can focus on myself as a pianist and musician. My dream moving forward into this next chapter is exploring repertoire, and simplify a little bit.”
Anne-Marie McDermott. Photo by Sophie Zhai
With this ambitious Beethoven program culminating in June, McDermott hopes to release her recording with Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería before next summer. She also hopes to continue supporting young classical pianists in their early careers, in ways such as being on the jury of renowned competitions like the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where future generations of piano masters are tested among the finest musicians in the world.
“I have a big passion for mentoring young pianists,” McDermott says, reflecting on young artist programs she has championed, such as the Piano Fellows Program she initiated at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival.
“It’s a very unforgiving world now for young musicians, because everything they do is put online. I had to make a whole lot of mistakes when I was a young artist. That’s how I learned. I feel like I have a lot of knowledge, and I want to share it with the younger generation. I want all of us classical musicians to appreciate how important classical music is, and be generous about what our life is like as musicians.” 
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